2 decade Deac fan here.
If there's one thing the Deacs do well and often, it's tank hard down the stretch. This year is no different. In the last 5 games, they have:
Lost by double digits on the road to the #11 team in the ACC (NC State)
Lost by double digits at home to the #10 team in the ACC (North Carolina)
Lost a road game at FSU in which they scored 47 points
Lost by 21 to the #12 (last place!) team (Miami) in the first round of the conference tourney.
Dino Gaudio got thrown into a tough situation when Prosser died. I'd love for him to do well. But after 3 years of watching him on the sideline, I've seen enough to know that he's a horrific in-game coach. Decent recruiter, but Xs and Os are wretched. LD Williams (the 2 guard) can't hit a jump shot to save his life. Ish Smith (PG) is abysmal at the FT line. Al-Farouq Aminu is a TO waiting to happen when he's not shooting 20% from behind the 3 point line.
The good news for brackets is that it doesn't really matter who wins the Texas-Wake game. Either team is going to get hammered by Kentucky in the 2nd round.
Why does it matter if Duke didn't win any games against the top 15RPI if Duke being ranked ahead of WVU in RPI doesn't matter?
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
RPI only factors in your winning percentage, your opponents winning percentage, and your opponents' opponents winning percentage.
Duke having a high winning percentage wins helps. Playing teams like Va Tech who have a high winning percentage helps, along with other ACC schools that play cupcake out of conference games. Acc has the worst OOC schedule of the big 6:
Pac 10 Sc = 0.653
Big 12 Sc = 0.564583
Big Ten Sc = 0.4863
Big East Sc = 0.44
SEC Sc = 0.425
ACC Sc = 0.377083
Leads to inflated ACC records, which leads to inflated RPI.
So, it seems like Baylor is getting a lot of hype but I don't know much about them and really don't follow the Big 12. Are they a legit threat or a product of a conference that tends to underachieve in the tourney?
Inferior in your mind perhaps. But generally if the computer calculations(I don't think RPI cares about Duke) and the humans agree, my guess is it is more than the NCAA caving in to Duke. While it's certainly debateable whether or not Duke is better than WVU or should be rated higher, it is not clear cut that WVU should have gotten the #1 seed ahead of Duke.
To hear your rant, WVU clearly is the better team and clearly has the better resume, and yet is seeded lower.
All anyone has been saying is clearly that's not the case.
If the media and the NCAA can be accused of giving Duke the benefit of the doubt, the public at large can just as easily be accused of not doing so.
For the record, I think Duke got the easiest path to the final four and its a crock that WVU has to play in Kentucky's region. Until this year we had always heard that the committee ranks all teams 1-65 and then snakes back and forth unless there are conference entanglements to avoid. This nonsense of entering geographical concerns strikes me as a weak cop out.
Who are WVU "SIX" wins against the top 15 RPI? ESPN shows they are 5-4 against the top 25 RPI.
Last edited by Razor Shines; 03-16-2010 at 12:08 PM.
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
I don't know who they have them beating. ESPN's Insider has them as 5-4 vs. the top 25 RPI. Maybe they go by how the team was ranked at the time they played, I don't know.
And I agree that WVU may be better than Duke, there's certainly an argument there. But I don't think it's completely ridiculous that Duke is #1 over WVU.
As for the 90% of college basketball fans agreeing with you. Well, most college basketball fans outside of NC HATE Duke, so big deal. And I'm not sure we should be making any conclusions based on an online poll. How many times did you vote?
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
You can only vote once. And I concede that there is a lot of hate for Duke, but those results were just ridiculous.
The ridiculous part to me is that if you flipped the two resumes, it would still be Duke getting the 1 seed. And like I said, I didn't mind getting the #2 in their bracket, and that is what I am most bitter about.
Duke has the easiest route to the final four, that's not even debatable IMO.
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