Which Best 65? Duke Sucks

thefadd.

Posted to Sport on Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 11:57:07 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Sunday, March 16 will be "Selection Sunday" for the Men's and Women's NCAA Basketball Tournaments. That means that this week is a wild ride of Conference tournaments as ~~bubble teams~~ weeble wobbles and underdogs compete to win the final at large bids that will be handed down before the Big Dance begins in earnest on Wednesday the 19th.

One upset has already had a major ripple effect. The University of San Diego men's and women's teams both pulled off upsets to capture the West Coast Conference championship and thus an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. On the men's side, 22 ranked Gonzaga was strongly favored to win and will likely still make the tournament. The fact that USD would not have, though, likely pushes out other ~~bubble teams~~ weeble wobbles like Syracuse or Villanova from the powerhouse Big East Conference.

As usual, there is great debate over which teams should make the tournament. Typically, the discussion centers around the friction between teams from overlooked smaller conferences who might be more deserving and teams from over-hyped major conferences that have big names and large fan followings.

Which teams will you be rooting for? Who will be the ~~Cinderella story~~ team we never heard of and take delight in seeing beat a big conference team that didn't deserve its high seeding this year? Do you have any tried and true methods for winning that office bracket pool? Do you find this, as Dick Vitale would say, "Awesome, baby!"

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Tags: edited by Port1080, written by thefadd, NCAA, basketball, sports (all tags)

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1	Better than the BCS? port1080. Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 12:47:23 PM EST 4.50 (interesting)

For all the talk about how college football would be better served by a basketball-like playoff or tournament system, I wonder if that's really the case. After all, the tournament has similar flaws - who is in and who is out is always a matter of contention, and since the games are one-off affairs there's always questions about whether the team just had an off night, etc. It seems to me that the method pro baseball and basketball use are probably the most "accurate" in crowing a champion - having the playoffs be 5 game series means that even if a team has one bad night, over the course of the five games you should get an accurate picture of which team is better. Of course, that also means a more grueling playoff schedule and a greater chance of injury to a top player, so there are downsides to that as well...

3 1	Re: Better than the BCS? thefadd. Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 03:04:34 PM EST 5.00 (astute)

The reason I like the NCAA tourney so much as all the games that run concurrent. For my money, the second round of games on the first Saturday and Sunday is as much guaranteed fun every time as sports gets. College's football bowl games used to be like that when they were all on New Years. Now that they're spread out for TV purposes, it just isn't the same and never will be.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

4 3	Re: Better than the BCS? port1080. Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 03:21:59 PM EST 4.00

What's the good part of that? Unless you have ten TVs and the desire to set them all up in the same room, you can't watch all the games at once. Sure you can flip back and forth, but even then half of them are only carried in full on the regional sports networks, so you have to be paying an arm and a leg to see them...

5 4	May the moderately lucky bastards win. Shy Elf. Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 03:40:14 AM EST 5.00 (brilliant)

Assuming non-cyclic chances of victory, there will always be a team better than everyone else, who has a better than even chance to win against every other team. I shall define this team to be "godly."
The chance that a tournament is won by the godly team I shall define as the "fairness" of a tournament.

No matter how many teams make the tournament, there will always be weeble wobble teams. In football, with many fewer games giving strength information, roughly 8 teams have a reasonable claim to being godly. Since only 2 teams make the tournament, there is a high chance that the true godly team will not make the tournament. Basketball has many more games during the regular season, which results in only 4-5 teams with a real claim to be godly. Since 65 teams make the tournament, a tournament victory by any of the weeble wobble teams would require them to be improbably lucky bastards.

Comparing amongst single-loss elimination tournaments, it is evident that in football there are unfairly few teams in the tournament, creating a high chance that the godly team will not make the tournament. In basketball, there are unfairly many teams in the tournament, creating an unnecessary chance that the godly team will lose in the early rounds to some lucky bastards.

In football, the 2-team tournament is almost universally reviled, while the 65 team single elimination basketball tournament is almost universally loved, despite it being obvious that something as simple as cutting the number of teams to 8 and having 3 game playoff series would result in a significantly more fair tournament. The difference, which I will call "televisability", is the amount of the selection of the champion which can easily be watched by the average viewer. Football is poorly televisable, since it watching all games relevant to the selection of the champion requires watching regular season games such as Michigan losing to Appalachian State, which beforehand nobody in their right mind would have expected to be an important game. In the highly televisable basketball tournament, as thefadd points out (if I understand what he's trying to say), the fact that 4 games are played at the same time means that you can watch enough of all of the games to see why they were won or lost.

People don't really want to watch a fair tournament. The inclusive unfairness of the basketball tournament is in fact the greatest source of its popularity. Supporters of the 6th through 16th ranked teams know that their teams are not godly, but watch the tournament anyhow in hopes that the teams they support will be moderately lucky bastards. Supporters of lower ranked teams know that their teams would have to be improbably lucky bastards to win the tournament, but tune in anyhow in hopes of watching their teams advance a few extra games by knocking off some unlucky bastards.

May the moderately lucky bastards win.

2	Duke Sucks, but that's okay. MayorBob. Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 02:47:08 PM EST 4.50 (interesting)

What will happen is that probably one 15 seed will manage to upset a comatose and overrated 2 seed. With any luck, that (no I will not make an allusion a fairy tale princess here) team will be in it until the round of sixteen or eight and, Boy Howdy, will we ever get sick and fucking tired hearing about them and their (word deleted) status in the tournament. Then the tournament can get down to the real business of the NCAA, which is matching up the four best large school teams in the nation in the finals. Due to the fact that the brackets don't get published until Sunday, I couldn't begin to guess who is in the Final Four. I will say I don't think North Carolina or Duke are going to be national champions. Right now I'm favoring (and will be rooting for) either UCLA or Georgetown.

Oh yes, and the NCAA National Basketball Championships are the best athletic tournament in the world.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

6	Brackets thefadd. Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 02:43:29 PM EST none

The bracket for the men's tourney is set with the Mount St. Mary's/Coppin State play-in game kicking things off Tuesday night. The women's bracket will be announced tonight.

You can watch every game for free on your computer here.

Anyone for a TnT Bracket?
http://treesbracket.mayhem.sportsline.com/
phislammajamma

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

This story: 6 comments (6 from subqueue)

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Which Best 65? Duke Sucks

thefadd.

Posted to Sport on Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 11:57:07 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Better than the BCS?

port1080.

Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 12:47:23 PM EST

4.50 (interesting)

1

Re: Better than the BCS?

thefadd.

Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 03:04:34 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

3

Re: Better than the BCS?

port1080.

Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 03:21:59 PM EST

4.00

4

May the moderately lucky bastards win.

Shy Elf.

Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 03:40:14 AM EST

5.00 (brilliant)

Duke Sucks, but that's okay.

MayorBob.

Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 02:47:08 PM EST

4.50 (interesting)

Brackets

thefadd.

Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 02:43:29 PM EST

none