I've seen a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth recently about certain teams getting screwed by getting put into the "group of death" midwest region. Earlier on ESPN they had some analysts on OTL talking about this
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=10634080
The teams specifically talked about in the Midwest region
1. Wichita State
2. Michigan
3. Duke
4. Louisville
8. Kentucky
Specifically some big 10 beat writer was arguing that the midwest region was so much better than the east region for example. His argument(around the 10 minute mark) was that Virginia had a soft bracket outside of MSU (LOL of course). So I thought I'd do a seed by seed comparison to see if this is the case.
1. Wichita State vs. UVA - This is a difficult one. I'd say the edge goes to UVA, they won a decent ACC regular season and Tourney title. Their OOC wasn't good, but they kicked it up a notch in conference play
2.Michigan vs. Nova - I can agree that Michigan is stronger, but I don't think it's as pronounced as some of the analysts are making it. Nova is still a strong squad, but Michigan won the regular season title of a stronger conference(albeit with MSU not fully healthy)
3. ISU vs Duke - Another difficult one. Duke has a serious NBA talent in Parker, while ISU has crazy scoring depth with its 3 headed monster. Both finished 3rd in their respective conferences, and ISU won the tourney title. Both have similar RPI numbers and ISU played in a perceived tougher conference so I'll give the homer edge to ISU here, though it's probably not huge.
4. Louisville vs MSU - Arguably the two best 4 seeds in the tourney, MSU getting healthy/hot at the right time, and Louisville rolled over a not very deep AAC conference. Another scratch.
I think in seeds 5-7 the East is actually MUCH stronger than the Midwest with UNC, Cincy, and UConn. In the 8/9 game I agree, the midwest is much stronger, IF Kentucky can play well(which is a big if given how the rest of their season has gone). I mean come on, they play half a good game against Florida and still lose and now all of a sudden they are a contender again? I know they are talented but I'm selling big time on Kentucky's tournament future.
Overall I think there is too much complaining about how horrible the committee did. I see minefields for any potential contender all over the bracket, not just in the midwest.
If you remove the name off the fronts of the jerseys, the Midwest doesn't look so potent anymore.
http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=10634080
The teams specifically talked about in the Midwest region
1. Wichita State
2. Michigan
3. Duke
4. Louisville
8. Kentucky
Specifically some big 10 beat writer was arguing that the midwest region was so much better than the east region for example. His argument(around the 10 minute mark) was that Virginia had a soft bracket outside of MSU (LOL of course). So I thought I'd do a seed by seed comparison to see if this is the case.
1. Wichita State vs. UVA - This is a difficult one. I'd say the edge goes to UVA, they won a decent ACC regular season and Tourney title. Their OOC wasn't good, but they kicked it up a notch in conference play
2.Michigan vs. Nova - I can agree that Michigan is stronger, but I don't think it's as pronounced as some of the analysts are making it. Nova is still a strong squad, but Michigan won the regular season title of a stronger conference(albeit with MSU not fully healthy)
3. ISU vs Duke - Another difficult one. Duke has a serious NBA talent in Parker, while ISU has crazy scoring depth with its 3 headed monster. Both finished 3rd in their respective conferences, and ISU won the tourney title. Both have similar RPI numbers and ISU played in a perceived tougher conference so I'll give the homer edge to ISU here, though it's probably not huge.
4. Louisville vs MSU - Arguably the two best 4 seeds in the tourney, MSU getting healthy/hot at the right time, and Louisville rolled over a not very deep AAC conference. Another scratch.
I think in seeds 5-7 the East is actually MUCH stronger than the Midwest with UNC, Cincy, and UConn. In the 8/9 game I agree, the midwest is much stronger, IF Kentucky can play well(which is a big if given how the rest of their season has gone). I mean come on, they play half a good game against Florida and still lose and now all of a sudden they are a contender again? I know they are talented but I'm selling big time on Kentucky's tournament future.
Overall I think there is too much complaining about how horrible the committee did. I see minefields for any potential contender all over the bracket, not just in the midwest.
If you remove the name off the fronts of the jerseys, the Midwest doesn't look so potent anymore.
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