Pool C

[iwumichigander]

Sager - you asked a question a bunch of pages ago and now I can't find it (I have not mastered the search function like many). Something you wanted me to confirm or explain maybe?

Being sick last week and doing my best to recover quickly, I disconnected for a few days - wrong time of year to do that. Anyway, saw the message, but forgot to circle back.

Here it is:

My attempts at trying to read between the lines whenever Dave has a national committee member on Hoopsville lead me to believe that they value the criteria and the regional rankings right up to the last dollar available to them ... but no further. They value them enough, in fact, to try to reward an obvious #1 seed such as Whitman whenever possible, so that if there's a couple of flights available within the budget they wouldn't hesitate to fly two Texas teams to Walla Walla. At the same time, though, there's no guarantees that bracketing requirements won't use up whatever extra flights are available, so if there aren't any extra flights the Blues will be on a plane to the Lone Star State even though they deserve better.

Is that a fair reading of what I keep hearing on Hoopsville, Dave?

Ypsi'd by Dave 

[Gregory Sager]

Everybody is Ypsi'ing me this week. Some joker must've taped a "Make Me Do Research" sign to my back.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Everybody is Ypsi'ing me this week. Some joker must've taped a "Make Me Do Research" sign to my back.

I didn't do it!  (And you'd have to do research to try to prove I did. )

[kiko]

Everybody is Ypsi'ing me this week. Some joker must've taped a "Make Me Do Research" sign to my back.

This was the rare longitudinal Ypsi.  You don't see those every week...

[Mr. Ypsi]

Everybody is Ypsi'ing me this week. Some joker must've taped a "Make Me Do Research" sign to my back.

This was the rare longitudinal Ypsi.  You don't see those every week...

I've been working on that sort of projection.

[fantastic50]

Final:  John Carroll 82  Marietta 79

Blue Streaks pull the road upset and the Pioneers will now be looking for a Pool C bid.
.

This upset impacts Pool C only if Capital fails to win the OAC title, as both the Pioneers and Crusaders are in good shape for Pool C berths.

To quote Greg on The Belt^TM thread, FTFY

Being right in between JCU & Capital, I should know better!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

My attempts at trying to read between the lines whenever Dave has a national committee member on Hoopsville lead me to believe that they value the criteria and the regional rankings right up to the last dollar available to them ... but no further. They value them enough, in fact, to try to reward an obvious #1 seed such as Whitman whenever possible, so that if there's a couple of flights available within the budget they wouldn't hesitate to fly two Texas teams to Walla Walla. At the same time, though, there's no guarantees that bracketing requirements won't use up whatever extra flights are available, so if there aren't any extra flights the Blues will be on a plane to the Lone Star State even though they deserve better.

Is that a fair reading of what I keep hearing on Hoopsville, Dave?

Correct way of understanding it. I feel from what I've been told on and off the air that they are going to do their best to create as balanced a bracket as they can and use the flights they are afforded to the best of their ability. However, they had the same plan last year before Texas schools threw a curve ball on them and forced them in a different direction.

They are going try and reward Whitman, but I would also say they are going to try and be creative. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe we see something different in the first round - maybe send Whitman on the road - to create other options later.

The biggest key to remember is the NCAA liaison will look at the potential flights in the second weekend as well - even if they may be a bit far fetched - and ask for things to be adjusted. So, the committee can't completely come up with crazy scenarios and then hold their breathe.

[ronk]

My attempts at trying to read between the lines whenever Dave has a national committee member on Hoopsville lead me to believe that they value the criteria and the regional rankings right up to the last dollar available to them ... but no further. They value them enough, in fact, to try to reward an obvious #1 seed such as Whitman whenever possible, so that if there's a couple of flights available within the budget they wouldn't hesitate to fly two Texas teams to Walla Walla. At the same time, though, there's no guarantees that bracketing requirements won't use up whatever extra flights are available, so if there aren't any extra flights the Blues will be on a plane to the Lone Star State even though they deserve better.

Is that a fair reading of what I keep hearing on Hoopsville, Dave?

Correct way of understanding it. I feel from what I've been told on and off the air that they are going to do their best to create as balanced a bracket as they can and use the flights they are afforded to the best of their ability. However, they had the same plan last year before Texas schools threw a curve ball on them and forced them in a different direction.

They are going try and reward Whitman, but I would also say they are going to try and be creative. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe we see something different in the first round - maybe send Whitman on the road - to create other options later.

The biggest key to remember is the NCAA liaison will look at the potential flights in the second weekend as well - even if they may be a bit far fetched - and ask for things to be adjusted. So, the committee can't completely come up with crazy scenarios and then hold their breathe.

The plan should have included which schools did apply to host; it shouldn't have been a surprise.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

They did get a list of what schools were to host ... but that doesn't mean the committee isn't thinking about how they are going to bracket before the final Sunday of the season. The men have been forward thinking for a number of years and thought they may be able to be creative with their bracket and solve the Whitman/Whitworth problem - since they had it the previous season. When they were told that none of the Texas teams were able to host, they had to go and rearrange a lot of what they were thinking.

They are told who is available to host when it is time to be told that - after selections and when they start to bracket officially.

[ronk]

They did get a list of what schools were to host ... but that doesn't mean the committee isn't thinking about how they are going to bracket before the final Sunday of the season. The men have been forward thinking for a number of years and thought they may be able to be creative with their bracket and solve the Whitman/Whitworth problem - since they had it the previous season. When they were told that none of the Texas teams were able to host, they had to go and rearrange a lot of what they were thinking.

They are told who is available to host when it is time to be told that - after selections and when they start to bracket officially.

That would be the choice of the NCAA, probably so the pool C selections aren't influenced by that knowledge; I agree with that; just saying the NCAA already has that knowledge.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Yes - the deadline for hosting opportunities is already come and gone as I understand it ... so the NCAA liaison has that information. However, they will not - as you noted - inform the committee of those things as it could impact selections.

There was a team in Texas on the table at the end that was a good debate to get in (ETBU, if I remember correctly) who HAD put in to host. Had they selected ETBU, the problem would have been solved. They didn't ... but they also didn't know the "problem" they faced.

[SaintPaulite]

My attempts at trying to read between the lines whenever Dave has a national committee member on Hoopsville lead me to believe that they value the criteria and the regional rankings right up to the last dollar available to them ... but no further. They value them enough, in fact, to try to reward an obvious #1 seed such as Whitman whenever possible, so that if there's a couple of flights available within the budget they wouldn't hesitate to fly two Texas teams to Walla Walla. At the same time, though, there's no guarantees that bracketing requirements won't use up whatever extra flights are available, so if there aren't any extra flights the Blues will be on a plane to the Lone Star State even though they deserve better.

Is that a fair reading of what I keep hearing on Hoopsville, Dave?

Correct way of understanding it. I feel from what I've been told on and off the air that they are going to do their best to create as balanced a bracket as they can and use the flights they are afforded to the best of their ability. However, they had the same plan last year before Texas schools threw a curve ball on them and forced them in a different direction.

They are going try and reward Whitman, but I would also say they are going to try and be creative. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe we see something different in the first round - maybe send Whitman on the road - to create other options later.

The biggest key to remember is the NCAA liaison will look at the potential flights in the second weekend as well - even if they may be a bit far fetched - and ask for things to be adjusted. So, the committee can't completely come up with crazy scenarios and then hold their breathe.

Will the NCAA liaison look at the potential flights on the third weekend compared to the Salem years, and factor that into their tolerance for first and second weekend flights?

They could avoid things like having Whitman (high 1 seed), Pomona-Pitzer (low 1) and UT-Dallas (mid 2) in the same bracket, but it will take some added tolerance for flights.

By the snake bracket, UT-Dallas would be more like a 2 in Whitman's bracket than a 3, and Pomona-Pitzer shouldn't even be considered as a possible 2 in that bracket. I'm using Drew's national top 100 here for who should be considered what.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Championship weekend is usually not considered in any season. Flight potential is understood and usually does not impact the rest of the bracket. I have never been told that a concern about who might or might not have to fly to Salem limited flights earlier in the event.

That said, I think it is an interesting question to raise about Fort Wayne ... though teams form the east coast are more likely to fly (though, some teams still had to fly to Salem). If they feel less flights may be needed, would that open up the bracket earlier ... I'll ask. I suspect they will say it doesn't affect anything, but I'll ask.

[Pat Coleman]

Championship weekend is usually not considered in any season.

Confirming for folks that we were told this for football as well. Whether the Texas Stagg would have potentially required one flight or two, it wasn't counted against the total flights projected for the bracket.

[SaintPaulite]

Championship weekend is usually not considered in any season. Flight potential is understood and usually does not impact the rest of the bracket. I have never been told that a concern about who might or might not have to fly to Salem limited flights earlier in the event.

That said, I think it is an interesting question to raise about Fort Wayne ... though teams form the east coast are more likely to fly (though, some teams still had to fly to Salem). If they feel less flights may be needed, would that open up the bracket earlier ... I'll ask. I suspect they will say it doesn't affect anything, but I'll ask.

If they set up the bracket close to fairly, there probably won't be as many east coast teams in it, at least this year. But New England teams were more than 500 miles from Salem anyway. Basically unless you were in NJ, VA, OH or PA (or Emory, dunno if they ever made it, not really the point anyway), you were more than 500 miles from Salem.

It's highly likely that there will be more closer trips to Fort Wayne than Salem, and that should be considered.