SEC
Joe Lunardi bracketology: ESPN's latest projection includes 8 SEC teams
Joe Lunardi updated his latest bracket projection early Sunday morning following a large slate of games on Saturday.
Lunardi has 8 SEC teams in his latest update, plus 1 program (Vanderbilt) on the wrong side of the bubble.
Here’s the seeding breakdown:
- Alabama (No. 1 seed in the South)
- Tennessee (No. 3 seed in the East)
- Kentucky (No. 7 seed in the South)
- Texas A&M (No. 7 seed in the West)
- Missouri (No. 8 seed in the Midwest)
- Arkansas (No. 9 seed in the East)
- Mississippi State (No. 11 seed in the Midwest)
- Auburn (No. 11 seed in the West)
Lunardi’s projection has Mississippi State playing in Dayton in the play-in round. Auburn, also a No. 11 seed, received 1 of the final 4 byes in Lunardi’s bracket.
Vanderbilt is the lone SEC team on the wrong side of the bubble entering championship week. The Commodores have been off the radar for most of the season, but have now won 8 of their last 9 games. A big weekend in the SEC Tournament next week could push them into the field of 68.
How is Arkansas as high as a 9 seed?
For some reason the metrics love them as they are #16 in NET.
Yeah I think there’s enough evidence out there that NET has some serious issues. You can actually win a game and drop in NET, or lose a game and not drop at all, which makes little to zero sense. We beat TN on the road, but because it was a buzzer beater NET dinged us, for example.
No. You didn’t drop in NET because you barely beat Tennessee. If you dropped after that win, it would be because the other teams you previously played lost their games and dropped.
And that’s a problem, when it’s not about winning and beating teams but rather how you win (or lose) you have to question how valuable, or even accurate of a tool it really is.
Like The Standard said “For some reason the metrics love them”. If the metrics (NET) love a team who is under .500 in Conference play and not even at 20 wins yet as much as a team who is 4 games over in the same Conf play with wins over both Tenn on the road and KY and zero bad losses (Q3 or Q4), then I think it’s more than fair to question that metric system.
Actually agree with you…lost their last 3 games, have NOT lived up to the hype-really expect them not to make the NCAA tournament unless they do well in the SEC. Just like our football team, they were OVER RATED & UNDER DELIVERED….suppose our only hope is baseball at this point.
a&m as a 7 seed is a joke. they’ve won 17/20…and were a couple of questionable calls involving a certain team’s game from wed night and a certain player never sitting out from taking the conf.
So true. The fact that A&M has no real solid wins out of conference combined with the not so stellar OOC records from the SEC on the whole this season are holding A&M back. That, and possibly a grudge from the NCAA tournament committee members irked by how vocal Buzz Williams and Greg Sankey were about A&M’s exclusion from the tournament last year. Fortunately, I think A&M is well positioned for a solid run into the tournament this year. And if they do make it all the way to the Final 4, they will basically have a home crowd with those games being in Houston, which is always good news!
This isn’t the committee’s picks, it’s Lunardi’s.
For what it’s worth, Bracket Matrix, a compilation of 68 different bracketologies, has TAMU as a 6 seed. I think that is their ceiling, even if they win the SEC tourney given that those results usually don’t factor into seeding this late in the game.
If they win the SEC tourney they will be a 5 seed IMO. I think if they make the title game they are a 5 seed. But what do I know. Maybe we will get left out again by the East coast basketball snobs with their agendas.
The conference tourneys are really only beneficial to bubble teams in terms of NCAAT seeding. I don’t see the NCAAT seeding to change too much for the teams that are considered “locks”.
I understand what you’re saying, but why was the conference tourney run A&M had last year no help to them?
I don’t have the answer. Each year the bubble is different. Sometimes, there are a lot of teams battling for those last spots, and like this year, the bubble can be a bit smaller.
TAMU had an awful non-con schedule and some bad losses that hurt them last year. This year was pretty similar in that regard, but they played incredibly well in SEC play to earn a solid seed.
5th in the SEC gets you a 3 seed???? Lunardi is a joke.
You ever hear of non conference games?
It amazes me how so many on this site still don’t understand NCAA tourney seeding and everything that goes into it. There is a lot more that goes into it than just W/L record.
The fact of the matter is that they claim a lot more goes into it, but then you have teams like A&M last year, who had better metrics than about 5 at large bids and were left out. IMO the number of metrics is a way to hide behind an agenda.