Irish are a 5 seed, splitting the difference between 4 (where we would have been with a win against Marquette) and 6.
George Mason is this year's George Mason? Certainly hope not...
Breaking Down the East Region-
#1 North Carolina gets the top seed and will take on the play-in winner. Indiana tumbles all the way to an 8. They were on the 4/5 line earlier in the week. Sorry, Hoosier fans. They will play 9 seed Arkansas.
Let's go to the bottom of the bracket next. 2 seed is Tennessee playing American. Butler got ripped off and fell to the 7 slot against South Alabama.
Seeded third is Louisville, a much deserved location. They will play 14 Boise State. Winner will take on Oklahoma or St. Joseph's.
George Mason was on the 12/13 line, so taking on the top 5 seed on the S-Curve (Notre Dame) was expected. Washington State was projected as a solid 5, so being seeded below the Cougars is a bit of a disappointment. Still, much better to have a team that was overseeded in your pod than the alternative. They take on Winthrop, who were lucky to avoid the 14/15 line.
In all, certainly a good draw for Notre Dame. Though we would rather have been a 4 seed, the location and competition is very helpful. Time to look forward to playing in Denver on Thursday.
Further Thoughts-
Georgetown gets a 2 seed, the highest for the Big East.
Kansas State at 11 is an upset special against USC.
Oregon somehow shot from the bubble to the 9th seed in the South.
Pitt took our 4 seed with the BET title. Anyone going to Denver will be able to see their pod in action as well.
Marquette's win over us had little effect for them, staying at 6 seed.
Good for Baylor getting the last at-large in the tournament, making only one of our losses to an NIT team.
8 teams for the Big East well deserved.
Finally, the committee wants to see the Harangody/Hansbrough matchup next weekend. Really hope we get there first.
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12 comments:
Nice, we get George Mason. And should things go a certain way, the second round game could be a rematch with Winthrop. Oh, those committee jokesters.
I agree with sebastian. That's a not ' extremely favorable' draw. It's still ridiculous, and a borderline outrage, and as I always, the continuing of the committe making ND 'pay' for the football contract (which is a conspiracy theory for another day)...Yay, we might get to play the two most successful mid major programs of the last two years while Pitt gets to play Oral roberts and overrated Mich St ...What a prize....I stand by my 'that Marquette loss was a killer' statement
Winthrop lost of its top 4 scorers from last year and the only guys with more than 3.8 rebounds a game. Not the same team at all from last year.
George Mason is also a far cry from its Final Four team. They were ranked 26 in the RPI that year. This season, they are ranked 61st and seeded only one slot below where they were in '06.
The other 12s are ranked 51, 57, and 37. Should we have been a 4? Certainly, but I don't see the borderline outrage.
However, I think we can agree on one point: if the Irish lose in the first round this year, they have no one to blame but themselves.
BTW, 5 bucks says the idiots in the countries and Vegas bet the line down to "pick" or even "GM -1" by Thursday with a combo of 'ND hatred/GM love/12 over 5'
With that said, ND is MUCH better than GM and should beat them...
Winthrop lost 3* of its top 4 starters from last year.
Absolutely agree with your last point. This isn't like playing a ranked 11 seed. We absolutely should win, and Sweet 16 is a very good possibility.
playing at 9:50, looks like cbs thinks it will draw a big audience
IF we get a Harangody, Hansbrough matchup, then quick, someone set the over/under on the amount of comments regarding
hustle,
effort,
heart, or
gymrat.
Also acceptable are:
he would play for free,
brings a lunchpail,
he'd play four years, or
coach on the floor.
[Fill in adjective about undersized white power forward here]
Seriously, great to see the late tip. Just hope that playing at night wasn't one of the problems for the Irish on Thursday.
Nevertheless, it's always better to be wanted than shoved into an afternoon timeslot.
More bad karma news for ND: Thursday's announcers in Denver will be Gus Johnson and Len Elmore. I know this blog's feelings on Elmore (and I think he's 'ok' but not great). I love Gus Johnson, but his presence always increases the upset potential by 10%
Do like Gus Johnson... he could make the last seconds of a 20 point game sound thrilling.
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