Here we are once again. Selection Sunday is upon us. For this bracket I did a complete scrub of all the seeds. I also started taking into account the fact that some major conference teams can make offers to host that the NCAA just can’t turn down. In the back of my head the Iowa quote about making a competitive offer keeps coming up. The Hawkeyes are definitely in the field in my opinion — they just have so many good wins it’d be hard to turn them down — but for the first time I have them playing Round 1 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
It’s not all land of milk and honey for Big Ten fans though. In this update I’ve moved Northwestern down to the NIT and Marshall up to the NCAA tournament. Yes, the Thundering Herd didn’t leave a great impression in the end, but then again neither did the Wildcats. Marshall has better wins and more of them, even if it does have some questionable losses along the way as well. (Decide for yourself here.) I’m on record of saying I think Minnesota, seeded fourth here, has a 70 percent chance of getting in.
It’s not going to make me a popular dude around here (and I sincerely hope I’m wrong), but I’m sticking with Iona out, Drexel in. It conveniently gives Stony Brook a very soft landing spot in the bracket.
The bottom of the bracket has been completely redone as well. There are now two Missouri Valley Conference teams chilling down there. Northern Iowa was the LAST at-large team I took into the field. The first five teams out are: Wyoming, George Mason, Buffalo, UCLA, Weber State. That’s in order. Teams like Penn and Wagner follow a little further down the road.
I switched two true seeds. Washington was a five, but I swapped them to a four so that they could host Nevada in the first round. Akron moved down to the five line, which conveniently allowed them to play a relatively local game against Minnesota. Finally, St. Bonaventure is the only team that’s playing today that could screw up the bracket. If the Bonnies win, it forces me to make a tough decision between Seton Hall, South Florida and Drexel, which I think are the final three teams into the NCAA field right now.
NIT Bracket:
1. N.C. State
8. Savannah State
4. Iowa
5. Middle Tennessee St
3. Saint Joseph’s
6. Princeton
2. Mississippi State
7. Northern Iowa
1. Iona
8. Stony Brook
4. Stanford
5. Oral Roberts
3. UCF
6. St. Bonaventure
2. Miami (FL)
7. LSU
1. Northwestern
8. Valparaiso
4. Washington
5. Nevada
3. Massachusetts
6. Oregon
2. Dayton
7. Illinois St
1. Tennessee
8. Texas-Arlington
4. Minnesota
5. Akron
3. Arizona
6. Denver
2. Ole Miss
7. Bucknell
Note: If the committee decides to take any of the first five out over the teams seeded in the six and seven lines I’ll completely get it. Also, I think that Massachusetts vs. Oregon is about the dumbest thing I could come up with, but I’m not quite sure how to fix it. I guess Massachusetts vs. Bucknell is a little better and then Ole Miss vs. Oregon.
NYC Buckets Archive 
Let me guess, you went to Illinois St for undergrad and Denver for your masters? Not sure how you can have those two in over Mason, Wagner, Buffalo…
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Denver — RPI 94 — Beat Southern Miss and St. Mary’s, 12-8 vs. RPI Top 200
Illinois State — RPI 101 — Beat Wichita State, 13-10 vs. RPI Top 200
Wagner — RPI 92 — 0 Top 50 wins, 4 fringe Top 100 Wins, 7-5 vs. RPI Top 200
George Mason — RPI 82 — Beat VCU, 10-7 vs. RPI Top 200
Buffalo — RPI 78 — 0 Top 50 wins, Akron twice, at Dayton, 8-9 vs. RPI Top 200
I went to graduate school at Northwestern, so there’s no bias there. Also, I cover Wagner and I know how much it would mean not only to the school but to the entire NEC to get a bid into the NIT. If you want to take George Mason over Illinois State I get it, but Denver built up a solid resume over the course of an entire season and deserves a bid.
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The “vs top 50”, “vs top 100” and “vs top 200” arguement is so misleading – Mason swept ODU this year who has an RPI of 102, so I’m guessing those wins mean nothing while wins over the #99 RPI all the sudden look do much better? If your going to use RPI, than use it how it was intended… Mason’s RPI is 12 spots better than Denver and 19 spots better than Illinois St. My $.02
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Just for fun… I’ll throw this out there too:
Pomeroy rankings of the five teams we’re talking about —
Denver — 77
Illinois State — 88
Buffalo — 107
George Mason — 108
Wagner — 114
That’s another reason why I firmly believe that those two teams are better, though I didn’t take it into consideration when actually building the bracket, because it’s not something I think the committee would ever look at. (But it should.)
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