Lunardi's latest Brack and Diane two American kids growin' up in the heartland

[Frozen]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

SU a 3 in Buffalo (South Region). Atrocious.

 

[Marsh01]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

SU a 3 in Buffalo (South Region). Atrocious.

So good for you

Yet so wrong by him. He is completely clueless

 

[BomberOrange]

Good thing he is not on the committee.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

SU a 3 in Buffalo (South Region). Atrocious.

People are counting our losses double. It's the only explanation.

 

[sabach]

Awesome title as usual. I don't want to sound redundant but as of right now, we are the 2 in the East and Duke is the 3 in the south. If we play and beat Duke on Sat. that will stay that way. If we play and lose to Duke on Sat. it will switch. We have our destiny in our own hands, but that does not excuse Lunardi as of this moment. Life goes on.
In addition, Lunardi is onto something here as others have pointed out throughout this season. Because the committee likes to do this stuff, I will not be surprized at all to see UConn as our second round opponent as a 7 to our 2 or a 6 to our 3.

 

[Ozcuse]

People are counting our losses double. It's the only explanation.

They are counting when the losses happened and to whom.

We can win the ACC and shut em up or lose the first game and confirm their suspicions.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

They are counting when the losses happened and to whom.

We can win the ACC and shut em up or lose the first game and confirm their suspicions.

Body of work argument cancels out the "when the losses happened" argument.

 

[SoBeCuse]

This team does not play many players. Grant's absence was absolutely huge for THIS team. Maybe even more than this Embiid scenario for the same duration of games. Kansas has other stars (on paper) and certainly more bodies to help right the ship. Grant not playing and even Baye should be factored in. I think a strong showing coming up with even a loss in the ACC Tourney title game should still get us a #2. Where I don't know and don't care.

 

[JohnCuse44]

He wasn't going to change our seeding because we didn't play. He is only going to do updates based on wins and losses right now.

Beat Duke on Saturday and even Latardo will have us as a #2

 

[HOFCeluck]

This is what happens when you lose to two of the worst BCS programs in America at home.

 

[Garbs]

They are counting when the losses happened and to whom.

We can win the ACC and shut em up or lose the first game and confirm their suspicions.

we understand that it is the double standard though, that some teams get the benefit and we do not, like Arizona who has been squeaking by but still only 7-3 without Ashley, but because those 3 losses were spread out it isn't as big of a deal, if they lose to Utah, who they almost lost with Ashley how are they a 1 or 2 seed?

 

[RF2044]

People are counting our losses double. It's the only explanation.

This.

Other teams get passes when they lose games but have players injured. Our "awful" loss to GT isn't quite so bad when you factor out Grant's absence. Ditto the Virginia loss, where he missed the second half.

But at the end of the day--F Lunardi's projections. We can control our own destiny here. Have a good showing in the ACCT, and the sky is the limit for this team. Stub our toe, and we just reinforce all of the negative sentiment about this team playing poorly.

It really is up to us.

 

[Lawrinson14]

At this point is seems to be a forgone conclusion that we will play PUconn in the second round. Seems like nearly every bracket I've seen has this matchup.

 

[JohnCuse44]

At this point is seems to be a forgone conclusion that we will play PUconn in the second round. Seems like nearly every bracket I've seen has this matchup.

 

[BuffOrange]

we understand that it is the double standard though, that some teams get the benefit and we do not, like Arizona who has been squeaking by but still only 7-3 without Ashley, but because those 3 losses were spread out it isn't as big of a deal, if they lose to Utah, who they almost lost with Ashley how are they a 1 or 2 seed?

They won @Utah without Ashley, which other than Oregon, was also the only really close win in that 7-3 "squeaking by" stretch.

 

[HOFCeluck]

This.

Other teams get passes when they lose games but have players injured. Our "awful" loss to GT isn't quite so bad when you factor out Grant's absence. Ditto the Virginia loss, where he missed the second half.

But at the end of the day--F Lunardi's projections. We can control our own destiny here. Have a good showing in the ACCT, and the sky is the limit for this team. Stub our toe, and we just reinforce all of the negative sentiment about this team playing poorly.

It really is up to us.

No team with injuries lost to teams as bad as we did. It'd be one thing if we lost to some bubble team at their house on senior day or something. Georgia Tech is a team. And we lost to them at home. That's a game we should win with Billy Celuck starting at forward. I think the injury excuse is valid, but it has it's limits.

Agree with everything in the second paragraph though.

 

[HOFCeluck]

Profanity filters ruin everything.

 

[RichmondCuse]

At this point is seems to be a forgone conclusion that we will play PUconn in the second round. Seems like nearly every bracket I've seen has this matchup.

Well, i'd prefer that over the 2nd round matchup with VCU that Palm currently has in his bracket. Yikes - that would be terrifying for a team that has shown how offensively challenged they can be at times.

 

[RF2044]

No team with injuries lost to teams as bad as we did. It'd be one thing if we lost to some bubble team at their house on senior day or something. Georgia Tech is a team. And we lost to them at home. That's a game we should win with Billy Celuck starting at forward. I think the injury excuse is valid, but it has it's limits.

Agree with everything in the second paragraph though.

I want to be clear: we lost those games, and they should count against us. I'm just pointing out the evaluative hypocrisy that seems to be applied here, where certain teams that have lost more games that are given passes for losses that occur due to injury, while we're over-penalized [IMO] in the court of public opinion for those losses despite having a key player out.

Bottom line: we need to beat the BCs and GTs of the world. Had we done that, we'd be sitting pretty even with disappointing losses @ Duke and @ UVa.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Well, i'd prefer that over the 2nd round matchup with VCU that Palm currently has in his bracket. Yikes - that would be terrifying for a team that has shown how offensively challenged they can be at times.

True but im not in love with either of those matchups, id rather avoid any of the AAC teams ie Lville, Ucant, Cincy if at all possible.

 

[BuffOrange]

No team with injuries lost to teams as bad as we did. It'd be one thing if we lost to some bubble team at their house on senior day or something. Georgia Tech is a team. And we lost to them at home. That's a game we should win with Billy Celuck starting at forward. I think the injury excuse is valid, but it has it's limits.

Agree with everything in the second paragraph though.

That's fair but most teams have at least one of those road/neutral losses to bubbles even when they're healthy. Our 6-0* in said games ought to mitigate the bad losses (and I do agree they are bad) somewhat, or at least more than they are.

*Maui, SJU, FSU. Maryland is maybe a stretch but since their kenpom is better than half the bubble teams I'm counting it.
That's pretty good.

 

[HOFCeluck]

I want to be clear: we lost those games, and they should count against us. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy in evaluating teams that have lost more games that are given passes for losses that occur due to injury, while we're over-penalized [IMO] in the court of public opinion for those losses despite having a key player out.

Bottom line: we need to beat the BCs and GTs of the world. Had we done that, we'd be sitting pretty even with disappointing losses @ Duke and @ UVa.

Georgia Tech is 7-12 in the conference and just moved to 500 overall by virtue of beating the worst team in the league. We should be able to beat them at home without Grant.

 

[HOFCeluck]

That's fair but most teams have at least one of those road/neutral losses to bubbles even when they're healthy. Our 6-0* in said games ought to mitigate the bad losses (and I do agree they are bad) somewhat, or at least more than they are.

*Maui, SJU, FSU. Maryland is maybe a stretch but since their kenpom is better than half the bubble teams I'm counting it.
That's pretty good.

That's true. Maybe there's some recency bias. I know that shouldn't be weighed at all but I guess it's tough to subconsciously overcome.

 

[RF2044]

Georgia Tech is 7-12 in the conference and just moved to 500 overall by virtue of beating the worst team in the league. We should be able to beat them at home without Grant.

That's a truism. "Without Grant" is significant for a team that has limited depth. I don't think many fully appreciate that this team has a razor thin margin for performance--especially scoring, rebounding, and interior defense--if any of the principals can't play. Not only is he the second leading scorer [without looking] on a scoring challenged team, he's also the top rebounder. That's not easy to overcome. It would have been in recent years past, when we had the luxury to slide effective bench guys with scoring prowess who played starters' minutes anyway like Kris, Scoop, CJ, Southerland, and Dion into the lineup. This year, we had Roberson who performed terribly trying to fill Grant's shoes that day.

That was also our worst performance of the year, and we still almost won, BTW. I'm not excusing the team for the loss, but I think some of the criticism is over the top. And it reflects in some bracketology projections.

 

[Knicks411]

That's a truism. "Without Grant" is significant for a team that has limited depth. I don't think many fully appreciate that this team has a razor thin margin for performance--especially scoring, rebounding, and interior defense--if any of the principals can't play.

That was also our worst performance of the year, and we still almost won, BTW. I'm not excusing the team for the loss, but I think some of the criticism is over the top. And it reflects in some bracketology projections.

I think the BC loss was worse, but point taken.

Our performance on Sunday made me feel a lot better and I am more likely to agree with your point re: thin margin for error.
If you put stock in Lunardi's bracket (which maybe you shouldn't) but you gotta figure 2 wins this week passes us past Duke, no? Only questionw ould then be if we lost to UVA if they'd pass us on the pecking order.