Gilbert Quinonez The stat geek will
gladly help anyone filling out their brackets. Last year, he had
Stanford over Michigan State in the final. E-mail him at bcscomputergeek@hotmail.com.
Click Here for more articles by Gilbert Quinonez
It’s madness baby! Sixteen games will be played today, 16
tomorrow, 63 in all. For those of you in illegal office pools, the
mathematical odds of getting every game right are 1 in
9,000,000,000,000,000,000, or the odds of Lavin cutting down the
nets in Atlanta.
March Madness is known for its big upsets, like No. 15 Hampton
beating No. 2 Iowa State last year, and No. 9 Ole Miss beating No.
8 UCLA this year.
Just like the NCAA wants student-athletes to perform better
academically, the NCAA has tried to improve its geography skills.
To “reward” teams that do well, the NCAA is trying to
put them closer to home. Let’s see how the selection
committee did:
Gonzaga was given the No. 6 seed in the West Region. For the
time being, let’s assume that Gonzaga actually is a No. 6
seed, even though they are the No. 6-ranked team in the country.
The No. 6 seed usually is a good one to have. Usually, it’s
matched up with a beatable No. 3 seed in the second round, and a
potentially beatable No. 2 seed in the Elite Eight. However, the
“beatable” No. 3 seed in the West is Arizona. The No. 2
seed is Oklahoma, the same team that beat Kansas on the last day of
the season, and should be a No. 1 seed.
Let me expand further on the West bracket, also known as the
bracket of hell ““ or the USC campus. Six of the top seven
teams in that bracket won their conference tournaments.
What was the reason behind Gonzaga’s No. 6 seed? RPI.
Gonzaga’s RPI was a lowly No. 21. However, RPI can be used in
many ways for the figure skating judges, err selection
committee.
The RPI is an atrocity by itself. In those rankings, teams
control only one-fourth of their destiny. The teams strength of
schedule counts for one-half, and the opponents strength of
schedule counts for one-fourth of the rating. Also, teams with
lower RPI’s were seeded higher than Gonzaga. USC had an RPI
ranking of No. 26, but they get a No. 4 seed. Marquette was No. 23
in the RPI, but they got a No. 5 seed.
Also, even though the Spanish Inquisition (selection committee)
did put Gonzaga in the West bracket, Gonzaga (Spokane) is nowhere
near Albuquerque, being 1,336 miles away. St. Louis is 1,836 miles
away, only about an extra hour on a plane flight.
How else did the geography majors mess up? No. 11 Southern
Illinois will be playing No. 6 Texas Tech in Chicago. Giving the
underdog the home crowd is always a good thing. Also, if No. 4
Illinois and No. 5 Florida both win, they will meet in the second
round in Chicago. The teams have nearly identical RPI’s
““ No. 12 and No. 15, respectively ““ but Illinois would
get an unfair home court advantage.
How did all of this affect the Bruins? Well, UCLA got the No. 8
seed in the conference of doom and has to go to Pittsburgh, even
though they are in the West bracket.
Next year, why not bring an atlas to the selection committee
room? They might find it useful.