Bracketology time already?
(The Daily Pennsylvanian)
What is more amazing: today’s date or that we are barely into the second full week of December and Joe Lunardi wants to talk March Madness brackets? Both are impressive, but we’re going to discuss the latter. If you want to know more about today’s date, just log on to any form of social media and look at your timeline/stream/feed.
Mrs. Tyler Thompson touched on this point last night in her notes, but let’s dig a little deeper into Lunardi’s first bracket of the season that has the Cats sitting as a 5-seed playing in the Los Angeles region, with the first rounds being played in Austin, Texas.
Your top seeds in this first edition are Indiana, Duke, Michigan and Florida. Louisville checks in as a 2-seed playing the first rounds in Dayton, Ohio and the regional in Indianapolis. Kansas, Ohio State and Syracuse round out the remainder of the 2-seeds.
If this were the real thing, the first concern would be Kentucky playing a 12-seed. The 5 versus 12 is typically one of those trendy upset picks and for good reason. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the 5-seed has beaten the 12-seed just 66.7 percent of the time — and that doesn’t include last season when there were two 12 over 5 upsets: VCU knocking off Wichita State and South Florida beating Temple. The last time all four 5-seeds made it to the next round was 2007.
The second concern would be the travel. Without a doubt, no fan base travels like the Big Blue Nation. But is Austin, Texas and Los Angeles, California too much to ask? Most recently Cats fans have been spoiled by playing relatively close to home in Louisville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa and New Jersey. There was a big turnout in Houston for the Final Four in 2011, but will fans be reserved heading to Texas for just the first two rounds? And then California? According to Google, flights from Lexington to Los Angeles are around $900 per ticket.
What could be the best part about this draw? Playing in Michigan’s bracket. Passing Indiana until the Final Four and avoiding Duke until the National Championship game does make things easier. Not that Kentucky should fear these teams, but nobody ever said taking the path of least resistance was a bad thing. And not to overlook Michigan, but they have a history of underperforming time and time again. Granted, this could be the best squad of Wolverines since Rose, Webber, Howard, King and Jackson wore the blue and yellow. Michigan is 10-0 and off to its best start in 23 years, but will have to slug it out in the Big Ten where we will learn its true colors.
Other notables from this bracket: The SEC has five teams in, fifth-best among the power six conferences. Including Kentucky and Florida, 4-seed Missouri, 9-seed Alabama and 11-seed Tennessee are in the big dance. Ole Miss is currently among the first eight teams to miss out on a bid.
23 Comments for Bracketology time already?
I would bet money that this will be the most incorrect bracketology prediction ever, but nonetheless, accurate as things stand now
Ok I get the 5 seed right now. That pretty much matches up with where we are at this point—but a FALLING 5 SEED??? Huh? It’s been 2 weeks since we lost a game… how is that falling? No where to go but up from here. I dont see us getting any worse than a 4
I like that bracket position a lot with the team we have this year. Gtown? They can’t score 40 points in a game. Michigan the 1 seed? I’ll take it.
If there’s a “path of least resistance”, rest assured it will be given to Duke.
Jabari Parker sets date for Dec. 20th. I hear Mich State for this one but i am really hoping wiggins to UK and Parker to UF. It would be a great match.
We need to worry about rebounding, protecting the ball, and hustling. We need not worry about seeding at this point.
Might not make the trip to Austin, but I would go to Indiana’s games in Rupp to boo, throw things at players and of course to be generally mean and nasty to all of their fans.
How much better would this team have been with Bazz?
No podcasts being posted this week. I wonder if KSR or Clear Channel or both have something big in the works which precludes offering the podcasts. Perhaps KSR / Clear Channel no longer control the rights to episodes of the radio show. Either that or Shannon the Dude is simply a lazy sack.
I do not see a team from the OVC in the bracketology…Is Lunardi slipping or am I blind?
Where do I apply to get Lunardi’s job when he retires? A December bracket is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. KSR needs to hire a bracketologist. You can never be wrong and if you are, who really cares!
Has anyone ever looked to see how close Poindexter was with his stupid bracketology this early in the year?
Bracketology before conference play. LMAO.
11. “You can never be wrong, but if you are…” Wtf lol
8 – Same. No way NCAA let’s him play for us.
Nothing is more ridiculous than Bracketology before February. But if I remember correctly, BBN wasn’t upset with his original Bracket back in October when UK was a #1 seed…
Hey Matt if you’re reading this- great job w/ the Walk-Ons podcast. Hilarious stuff, great listen. Glad they added you to the team.
Belmont is in the OVC. They are currently the 11 in the South/Arlington bracket.
@ #10 — Belmont is in the OVC. They are currently the 11 in the South/Arlington bracket.
Why would you not include last year’s games in your 66.7% number? Because you wanted to state that it happened twice last year to make your point stick out more than if you just said 65%. If you are going by the numbers stick to them without entering in your opinion.
1985 – 2011 = 27 tournaments
27 * 4 + 108
108*.667 = 72
72/108 = pre 2012 total
74/112 = current total
74/112 = 66%
seems like he is close enough to me b000000000
Kentucky, Michigan St., UNC, and UNLV……. That’s gotta be the most dangerous set of 5 seeds I’ve ever seen!
What,,,,,no Louisville as a number one seed. You Tard fans must be furious.