Agreed. I was hoping for Kansas as the 4 and least wanted Auburn. I can't believe we went oppo with the supposed #1 seed on those spots. No talented underperformer (FAU) at the 8 or 9. South Carolina would be a very favorable matchup for us, IMO. Tennesee and Creighton as the 2/3? Love it. Texas, Oregon, or Virginia sneaking into the Elite 8? Sign me up.
No. 1 seed in the Midwest
- Thread starter Travis Miller
- Start date
South Carolina is a scary matchup imo....maybe the toughest other than Creighton?
They have a few talented bigs and Meachie Johnson, but they don't go that deep with high end talent. I think I would go with wanting South Carolina over Creighton or another Tennessee game.
Tennessee and Gonzaga! I believe I said I don’t like rematches! But hey, when you play so many teams that are good, you end up having to play at lease one of them again.
I wouldn’t want to play uw, msu, northwestern or Illinois a third time either. I noticed 6 big 10 teams were in the tournament but none were placed in Purdue’s bracket. That’s probably a good thing.
When we talk about the dance, we talk about the matchups. And part of a good matchup is non-familiarity. I wouldn’t want to play Arizona, Marquette or Alabama either. And we all know Duke and UNC are always going to get all the calls by the refs. Purdue’s entire team could foul out in the first 10 minutes against Duke.
That's what I've been waiting on. Might have to pull the trigger on an all session ticket
I could be wrong, but Gonzaga seems like they don't have what it takes this year. Totally agree on Big Ten rematches. I learned my lesson when I figured we would cruize past Wisconsin to the Final Four back in 2000.
Tennessee is a rematch I don't like as well. They're due for a W against us. And they have a killer who can go Carson Edwards on you in the Tourney.
Let’s say I don’t think either Iowa state or Illinois are very tough teams. Purdue beat Illinois twice. Illinois just barely beat UW. Yes Iowa st just blew out Houston. But they don’t really excite me. I also thought UCONN had the easiest of the #4 seeds. And a #1 seed is not supposed to have any problems against the #5-16 seeds.
It sure looked like the NCAA was trying their best to help Purdue make the Final 4. Except the Tennessee matchup. Sure, Tennessee lost this week, but then again, so did Purdue.
Waiting to see what session. Ive been watchin prices on stubhub for weeks. They went up about 15 bucks as soon as the selection was confirmed. Im supposed to work but ill take the afternoon off if i have to. Im hoping we play in the evening session but who knows.
I want zero part of that Auburn defense and depth. They just come at you in waves of athleticism and defenders. It's wilde to me they were the worst of the 4's to the committe.
One interesting thing, since the bracket came out, my book's odds on Purdue to win it all dropped from +800 to +600.
I watched a bunch of their games. They don’t scare me at all. The only thing they could do is go nuts from 3. Anyone could do that though
Auburn, Kentucky, Duke, Dayton (8/9), Indiana State (8/9) if not for conference upsets are teams I did not want to see in Purdue’s bracket.
When I look at the tourney and brackets, I separate my thoughts in two directions. The first is who I believe are tough teams. The second is who I believe are tough matchups for Purdue.
Sometimes I believe a team may be a tougher matchup for Purdue than they are against the rest of the NCAA. As I look at this year, I see Tennessee as a tougher matchup against Purdue than UCONN.
As they say, if you want to be #1 you have to beat the competition regardless of who they are.
Sometimes I believe a team may be a tougher matchup for Purdue than they are against the rest of the NCAA. As I look at this year, I see Tennessee as a tougher matchup against Purdue than UCONN.
As they say, if you want to be #1 you have to beat the competition regardless of who they are.
I don't follow all the different teams like some, but the CBS team of Clark, Jay and Seth all said the midwest was the toughest, but thought the others were close. I don't know...just repeated what they said
My thoughts on the bracket:
1. Don't understand Virginia being in. In the end, I didn't have them terribly close.
2. Purdue's draw is good. Maybe very good. I think that's mostly based on Kansas' demise.
3. My mock was decent. 1 wrong (Virginia for St. John's). 36 on their correct seed line, 23 more 1 off. Had several exact matchups correct. Even had 4 more matchups right, but not on the right line, namely Michigan St vs Mississippi St (had them in Dayton) and Nebraska/A&M (had them a 7/10).
4. As I said above, I'd expect Purdue to be in the night session, especially if Kolek isn't playing for Marquette.
5. UConn got a tough road, but I think that's more for the media to complain about.
1. Don't understand Virginia being in. In the end, I didn't have them terribly close.
2. Purdue's draw is good. Maybe very good. I think that's mostly based on Kansas' demise.
3. My mock was decent. 1 wrong (Virginia for St. John's). 36 on their correct seed line, 23 more 1 off. Had several exact matchups correct. Even had 4 more matchups right, but not on the right line, namely Michigan St vs Mississippi St (had them in Dayton) and Nebraska/A&M (had them a 7/10).
4. As I said above, I'd expect Purdue to be in the night session, especially if Kolek isn't playing for Marquette.
5. UConn got a tough road, but I think that's more for the media to complain about.
Might be more to do with odds makers having more info on Smith's situation than the bracket??
According to the S-curve rankings, the Midwest has the hardest top 4. But according to the committee, Kansas was higher ranked than Auburn. Not sure if that's logical today.
Maybe, except that it's lower than we were before Braden got hurt originally.
I think if you go by cumulative seeds of top - 4 in each region, it was Midwest, but the ESPN crew (I actually tuned in a little - don't tell anyone...haha) thought of all the #1-seeds, Purdue had the best draw - certainly no cake-walk, though.
Tennessee was the highest rated #2-seed (at #5 overall).
No big complaints - pretty balanced field to me. Teams that advance will have to play really good basketball and maybe get a break down the line somewhere.
Turns out my mock was even better than I thought. BYU and Gonzaga's seeds were flipped, likely in order to keep BYU away from playing on Sundays. So I had their true seeds correct. Not sure why they couldn't keep them off Sundays.
www.cbssports.com
March Madness 2024: Committee reveals official NCAA Tournament bracket seed list from 1-68
A look at the NCAA Men's Basketball Selection Committee's ranking of the entire tournament field
www.cbssports.com
I was praying we would get Kansas as the 4 - we couldn’t have asked for a better 4 based on their health. I think we have the easiest road. We can obviously beat anyone but maybe the tables turn and we don’t even get Tenn or Creighton. We have been brewing on last season all year and this team is ready to roll. The loss yesterday will only refocus us even more
Utah State concerns me. If we get past them or they lose to TCU I agree our path to the final four is wide open.
How do the tickets work? Can I purchase a ticket for an individual game or do I have to buy the ticket for the session?
I've seen them talked about as the most grossly underseeded team. I admittedly don't know much about them but they did win a very good league outright.
Makes sense. We got a great bracket. There are no "easy" paths, but I have zero complaints about this draw. I agree with others that the Kansas #4 makes a difference. Put Auburn in our #4, and those odds change I bet.
Some betting things that have opened up already:
As I said above, Purdue now +600 to win title.
The Purdue OR UConn bet came off the board.
Purdue +140 to win MW Region
Edey the favorite to win MOP of the FF at +610. 3 UConn players out of the next 4.
"Winning region" - MW is +230, 3rd best.
I'm not going to give the odds of a 16-seed to win a game in the round of 64.
And the always popular, "Will a team with a color in its name make the FF?" Yes is +150. I have to double check if Auburn counts or not. I think it did last year.
As I said above, Purdue now +600 to win title.
The Purdue OR UConn bet came off the board.
Purdue +140 to win MW Region
Edey the favorite to win MOP of the FF at +610. 3 UConn players out of the next 4.
"Winning region" - MW is +230, 3rd best.
I'm not going to give the odds of a 16-seed to win a game in the round of 64.
And the always popular, "Will a team with a color in its name make the FF?" Yes is +150. I have to double check if Auburn counts or not. I think it did last year.
Yeah it was an odd thing to see in the first place from my experience with our source. But it was only up for less than 24 hours. Like what's the point?
I'm really torn on that MT State/Grambling game. We own property in MT and love the Bobcats, but I don't want PU to play them.
I just glanced at their schedule. They only played 4 games against Quads 1 and 2, with losses at Washington, Seattle, and South Dakota St and a win at Cal. They didn't have to face the 1 or 2 seeds in the Big Sky tournament because they had lost in the quarters already. MT State was the 5 seed, beat the 4, then the 10, then their rival, 3-seed Montana in the final.
