POLL VOTERS NEED MORE LUNARDI! Its yet to be seen whether the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee will agree with bracketologist Joe Lunardi, but voters in the national polls should be paying more attention. If they did, they would understand why neither Villanova nor Wichita State should be ahead of Arizona. Arizona was Lunardis choice for No. 1 seed overall last week but fell to the second No. 1 seed (there are 4 regional No. 1 seeds in the tournament) after losing at Oregon. Why does he have them ahead of Villanova and the undefeated Wichita schools, which are ranked ahead of Arizona in the AP and USA Today polls? Its all about who did you play and how did you play -- not just about your win-loss record. Arizona has played 12 Top 50 teams during the season, coming away with a 10-2 record, losing one other game at California, a Top 100 team. Wichita played only three Top 50 teams, only one of which is considered Top 25 (and questionable at that) and otherwise had a very easy schedule. Yes, it beat those three Top 50 teams, but most of their schedule was too easy compared with Arizonas. Villanova had a little harder schedule. It played eight games against Top 50 teams (compared to Arizonas 12) and lost three of those games. If they played four more Top 50 teams, you could extrapolate that they would lose one more game, giving them a worse overall record than Arizonas. Also, Villanovas losses were by 16, 21 and 28 points -- the worst of which was on their home court. Arizonas three losses were by 2, 3 and 6 points -- all away games. They were never blown out by anyone. Against Top 25 teams, Villanova was 1-3, Arizona was 4-0, and Wichita was 1-0. When you review Lunardis analyses, this is a no-brainer. Arizona deserves to be No. 2 -- not No. 4. In fact, its a very close call to say that No. 1 Florida deserves to be ranked over Arizona. Florida has played eight Top 50 teams, with a 6-2 record (worse than Arizonas 10-2), and its Top 25 record of 3-1 is worse than Arizonas 4-0, but Arizona has one more loss. And Floridas two losses were also close, by 1 and 6 points early in the season. By dialing down on their records, you see that Arizona should, as Lunardi says, be ranked above Villanova and Wichita, and is very close when compared with Florida.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 03:43:16 +0000
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