Sunday, March 23, 2008

Conference Wrapup

Remember when Dick Vitale used to come on TV and talk about how the ACC had sent two teams to the Sweet Sixteen for 15 straight years? For two years in a row that isn't true. The ACC has only one Sweet Sixteen representative.

6-3 Pac 10 (3 left)
10-5 Big East (3 left)
5-2 Big 10 (2 left)
7-4 Big 12 (2 left)
2-0 CUSA (1 left)
2-0 Southern (1 left)
2-1 Sun Belt (1 left)
4-3 ACC (1 left)
2-2 A10 (1 left)
4-5 SEC (1 left)
1-1 Horizon
1-3 WCC
1-3 MWC
0-1 MVC

Recall my post from Saturday about how many wins conferences are expected to get based on seeding.

The Big Ten was only expected to win 4.89 games in this tournament based on the seeding of the teams. With 5 wins already, the Big Ten has already exceeded expectations. Similarly, the Sun Belt was expected to win 1.11 games with its two teams and 2 wins for Western Kentucky do that. Add in the Southern Conference (Davidson 2 wins) and Horizon (Butler 1 win) and those conferences can also be somewhat happy.

Already disappointing? The MVC earned a 5 seed with Drake but lost. The WCC had 3 teams in the field (expectations of 1.74 wins), but only got one win.

As for the major conferences,
The Pac10 needs 3.15 wins to meet expecations.
The Big East needs 1.04 wins to meet expectations.
The Big 12 needs 1.64 wins to meet expectations.
CUSA (i.e. Memphis) needs 1.36 wins to meet expectations.
The A10 needs 0.77 wins to meet expectations.
The ACC needs 3.83 wins to meet expecations. (So unless UNC wins it all, this is clearly another disappointing tournament for the ACC.)
Finally, despite the worst overall record for a BCS conference, because the SEC had pretty poor seeds initially, the SEC only needs 1.89 wins to meet expectations.

Random Note: Since my team lost today, I'm suffering from the normal hatred towards all things basketball. (I still located last year's UNC-Georgetown tape in the cabinet though. Maybe that will cheer me up.) I'll be back with more posts whenever I regain my energy. This will probably be next weekend.