With first spherical motion kicking off within the ACC and Huge 12 tournaments on Tuesday, the insanity of Championship Week is on the verge of enveloping all of us.
Listed below are 4 issues that would make this week even madder than most.
1. A Energy Convention Bid Thief
While you hear the time period “bid thief” this time of yr, you sometimes consider a convention just like the Atlantic 10 or the Missouri Valley; Ones the place there’s a workforce or two which are locks to make the NCAA event, after which everybody else is combating to “steal” a bid from one of many at-large groups on the bubble.
However the massive boys can steal bids too.
A number of convention event winners from the previous Pac-12 (RIP) have been groups that have been comfortably on the surface trying in on the discipline of 68 when Championship Week started. The Georgetown Hoyas gained the 2021 Huge East event regardless of starting the week with a dropping general document. Simply final yr, NC State made an unbelievable 5 wins in 5 days run to say the ACC event title and knock Oklahoma out of the Huge Dance.
So maintain a watch out for somebody getting sizzling in one of many energy 5 tournaments this week and screwing all the things up for a workforce that has been residing on the sting for the final month. Truly, we will most likely simply name it the facility 4 for this week, as a result of until LSU or South Carolina win the SEC event, we’re virtually actually speaking a couple of event champion that was already dancing.
The most certainly energy convention to provide a bid thief? It needs to be the ACC.
Positive, Duke is unimaginable and has dominated the convention at a stage hardly ever seen, however the ACC has not had a No. 1 seed win its postseason event since all the way in which again in 2018. If the Blue Devils get knocked off sooner or later this week in Charlotte, and anybody apart from Louisville or Clemson cuts down the nets, the league’s auto-bid consultant is as soon as once more going to be a workforce earns a double-digit seed within the dance.
2. Auburn Might Lose the No. 1 General Seed
Thanks largely to the otherworldly power of this yr’s SEC, Auburn has put collectively a historic NCAA event resume this season.
The Tigers have a whopping 16 Quadrant-I victories, simply probably the most of any workforce within the nation, and probably the most of any workforce because the NCAA went to the quadrant system. They’re a mixed 11-0 in video games exterior of Quadrant-I, they performed the hardest schedule in America in keeping with each metric, they usually locked up an outright championship within the hardest league within the sport earlier than the ultimate week of the common season even began.
Understandably, there are many individuals who made the declare that Auburn had locked up the No. 1 general seed within the NCAA event earlier than the calendar even flipped to March.
They could have spoken too quickly.
Pretty much as good because the Tigers have been, most superior metrics utilized by the NCAA event Choice Committee consider Duke, in the intervening time, is best. The Blue Devils are No. 1 within the NET, No. 1 on KenPom, No. 1 within the BPI, and No. 1 on T-Rank. Duke has additionally misplaced only one time since final November, whereas Auburn dropped each of its ultimate two common season video games.
Oh yeah, and Duke beat Auburn head-to-head.
Regardless of one of many strongest general NCAA event resumes that we’ve seen in current reminiscence, if Auburn loses early within the SEC event and Duke takes care of enterprise in Charlotte, there’s a really actual likelihood that the Tigers could possibly be relegated to No. 2 general seed standing on Choice Sunday.
3. St. John’s Will get Very Offended or St. John’s Makes Everybody Else Very Offended
With out query, among the finest tales of the 2024-25 school basketball season has been Rick Pitino and the St. John’s Purple Storm. The Corridor of Fame head coach has injected life into the lengthy dormant program from New York, main the Johnnies to their first outright Huge East common season title in 40 years.
St. John’s is 27-4 general and can start this week’s Huge East event at Madison Sq. Backyard because the 1-seed and clear favourite to win their first league event title since 2000.
Let’s take Pitino and all of the hubbub about St. John’s being again out of the equation for a second. For those who mentioned that any workforce with any head coach had the potential to enter Choice Sunday as a twin Huge East champion and with a 30-4 general document, you’d simply assume that workforce was within the working for a No. 1 seed. On the very least, you’d assume that workforce had locked up one of many high No. 2 seeds.
This is probably not the case with St. John’s.
As stellar because the Purple Storm’s general document could also be and as glowing as their No. 5 (coaches ballot) and No. 6 (AP ballot) nationwide rankings are, they don’t have the depth on their event resume that so much the groups that they’re jockeying for place with do.
St. John’s at present sits at No. 16 within the NET Rankings and has simply 4 Quadrant-I wins. That’s the fewest of any workforce within the high 20 exterior of Gonzaga, which performs within the West Coast Convention and is projected in the intervening time to be a No. 8 seed.
If St. John’s wins the Huge East event and earns a No. 2 seed, the Committee should justify it by invoking the notorious “eye check.” That may upset a handful of groups with extra high quality wins and higher laptop numbers. On the flip aspect, if St. John’s wins 30 video games earlier than Choice Sunday and wins each Huge East championships and doesn’t earn a high two seed for March Insanity, Pitino would possibly stage a one man riot in the course of Occasions Sq..
Each choices are enjoyable for those who don’t have any pores and skin within the sport.
4. Delaware Might Be a part of an Elite Group
There are simply two groups within the historical past of Division-I school basketball which have made the NCAA event by advantage of profitable 5 video games in 5 days to seize their convention event title.
The primary was UConn in 2011. Led by the unbelievable play of star guard Kemba Walker, the ninth-seeded Huskies made historical past with an unimaginable run that included a buzzer-beating win over top-seed Pitt within the quarterfinals, an extra time win over Syracuse within the semis, and a three-point win over Louisville to win all of it. Walker and firm then carried that success into the Huge Dance, the place they made a shock run to say this system’s third nationwide championship.
Not like UConn, final yr’s NC State workforce had no likelihood of creating the NCAA event if it did’t pull off a miracle run in its convention event. That’s precisely what the Wolfpack did, profitable 5 video games in 5 days, a run highlighted by beautiful upsets of in-state rivals Duke and North Carolina, in addition to an exciting extra time win over Virginia. The magic continued deeper into March because the Pack piled on 4 extra victories, punctuated by one other upset of Duke to ship this system to its first Ultimate 4 since 1983.
Championship Week is younger, however we have already got a workforce on the verge of becoming a member of UConn and NC State within the five-timers membership. If they will get the job completed after which match the success the Huskies and Wolfpack had within the Huge Dance, properly, it’s secure to say it could be the largest March Insanity story of all-time.
Delaware went into final Friday having misplaced six straight video games to finish its common season, and 11 of its final 12. The Blue Hens (Blue Hens!) have been ranked 267th on Ken Pom, have been the twelfth seed out of 14 groups in Coastal Athletic Affiliation event, and have been a particularly secure wager to not make it out of the weekend.
Then, March occurred.
The Blue Hens (Blue Hens!) discovered their contact from the surface and squeaked out a primary spherical win over Thirteenth-seeded Stony Brook. Then they actually discovered their contact from the surface. Delaware blasted Fifth-seeded Campbell by 17, hung 100 factors in a 22-point upset of fourth-seeded William & Mary, after which toppled top-seed Towson by 10. Now the one factor standing between the Hens and the NCAA tournnament is a Tuesday evening tilt with second-seeded UNC Wilmington.
The final time Delaware gained 5 consecutive video games over D-I opponents? December of 2023. Now, they’re one win away from doing it in single five-game stretch on the largest stage their convention has to supply.
Nobody is saying pencil Delaware into your Ultimate 4 in the event that they’re in a position to get previous Wilmington, however perhaps financial institution on them advancing out of the First 4 in Dayton.