We Got The Annual Revealing Of The Top-16 Teams And Their Seeds For This Year's NCAA Tournament - Let's Argue About It
It's that time of the year when we get a little tease, a little sign that better times are coming. A month away from the NCAA Tournament and not having snow on the ground. A month away from getting out of the winter and everyone is just happier. So here we are without football and getting our first look at the NCAA Tournament bracket.
First off, yes, this matters.
I do it this way every year, it might be a bit of rambling, but shockingly I have thoughts.
- I still hate that we don't get a full bracket reveal. If we can do a top-25 rankings for the college football playoffs weekly, why can't we see who is truly on the bubble? We know who the best teams are in the country. That's easy to figure out. But what is the committee judging the bubble teams on? At the minimum give us the bottom 8 teams too. Tell us who is floating near the bubble, especially this year when everyone seems to be the same. Teams should know where they stand and we do it in football.
- The 1 seeds are right. People are going to bitch and moan about Purdue as the overall 1 seed, but they deserve it. It's also not last year's Purdue team, so a loss to FDU doesn't matter - until they trail in the 1st round to a 16 seed like Virginia did in 2019. It also doesn't matter who gets the overall 1 seed between Purdue and UConn. Purdue will be in the Midwest, UConn will be in the East.
- Why the hell do we do this before a loaded Saturday slate? Drop this tomorrow. Again, just need some common sense here. A bunch of these teams have big time games today and the top-16 becomes irrelevant from what they posted in less than 12 hours.
- The debate I saw with everyone was San Diego State getting a 4 seed over Dayton or Clemson. Yeah, that's where we are at this season. Clemson? They are fine, I guess. They have wins over Alabama, South Carolina, TCU and UNC, but they also lost to Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami and Memphis. Basically sums up this year better than anything if we're debating these teams as a 4 seed.
- Why is UNC a 2 seed? This had to be done earlier this week and they just didn't adjust? They've lost 3 of 5 and none of the losses are, uh, great. I thought for sure they'd be on the 3 line and for sure not the top 2 seed. That seems to be what everyone is saying too.
- That said, Alabama/Marquette as a Sweet 16 game? Yes. There might be 190 points in that game.
- Big 12 and SEC make up 7 of the teams. Not exactly shocking, they are the 2 best conferences in America this year. Big 12 is a gauntlet, SEC right behind them.
- There's no bracket of death. At least not yet. Every year we hear how one bracket is loaded. Each one of these has a weakness in it. They had to move Wisconsin because of weird bracketing rules. So instead of being in the Midwest, they go to the East. The West seems the most loaded because of Auburn as a 4 seed. They are top-5 in most analytic rankings. They only have 1 signature win (home against Alabama) so far this year, but look at them. That team is better than a 4 seed.
- You want odds? Thanks to DraftKings #DKPartner here you go:
#DKPartner
UConn and Purdue are starting to become the clear top-2 vs the field. Houston might make its way into that top-3 vs the field, at least in how people are talking about the Tournament. Lowest odds for a team not in the top-16? Your Kentucky Wildcats. Defense doesn't matter in March. Duh. If Arizona can make a Final Four, they are basically at home.
- We are close to locking in the 1 seeds barring a disaster. Purdue/UConn feel close to safe. Houston can get there. Arizona doesn't have any marquee games left because the Pac-12 fucking stinks out loud. That could open up a race for the last 1 seed.
- All I know is it feels so fucking good to see a bracket. We're close to the greatest time of the year, no matter how much it kicks me in the balls every year. Give me One Shining Moment. Give me the week leading up to the tournament where you spend too much time breaking down a bracket. Give me it all.