Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="OrangeXtreme, post: 3011695, member: 41"]
[B]1. Who is the last team in the field?[/B]

The discussion in the committee room probably centered heavily on Maryland and Cornell, with Denver and Ohio State also possessing cases. Cornell has an extra high-end victory, while Maryland’s overall profile is broader.

Here’s a relatively obscure data point that might get mentioned tonight: average RPI win. The average of RPI of the 11 teams Maryland defeated this season was 27 entering the weekend. For the 10 teams Cornell upended, it was 35.

As a comparison, the rest of the likely at-large field had average RPI wins of 20 (Syracuse), 22 (Notre Dame), 23 (Duke and Johns Hopkins), 27 (Virginia) and 28 (Loyola), plus either 31 (Yale) or 32 (Penn). That’s a differentiator for the Big Red, and not a good one.

[B]2. Who are the last two seeded teams?[/B]

It’s some combination of Johns Hopkins, Loyola, Notre Dame and Syracuse. Strictly going by RPI, Hopkins and Loyola would seem to have the advantage. But Hopkins did lose to Loyola and Syracuse and didn’t land a top-10 victory, while Notre Dame has a head-to-head over Syracuse — a comparison of two teams that beat Duke earlier in the season.

It would come as no shock if it turns out some of the most robust discussions revolve around sorting out those four teams.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?