Reader Adam asks, "Why does Tennessee deserve a 1 seed over Kansas? I've watched both teams this year and come away WAY more impressed with Kansas!"
This is an interesting question that Buffet routinely fields. Do you seed with your eyes or with the numbers.
Kansas has looked mighty impressive down the stretch, blowout wins over B12 tourney contenders Texas A&M, Kansas State, and Texas Tech back when Pat Knight still called himself the Little General, the Red Raiders had just upset Texas and thought that Pat Knight was going to be the next in the tradition of the Knight family to lose in the 1st round of the tournament.
But, upon closer inspection, it seems that Tennessee's resume is just a bit more powerful. In fact, the Volunteers' is one of the more impressive you will find. They are 11-3 against the the RPI Top 50, and the have 27 wins against the nation's toughest schedule, and went 13-1 in non-conference play against the nation's toughest non-conference schedule. They have no losses to a team ranked below 48 (19 to Texas on a neutral court, 3 @Vanderbilt, 6 @Kentucky). They beat fellow #1 seed Memphis on the road, projected #3 seed Xavier on the road, split with Vandy, beat Gonzaga by 10, won on NC versus W.Virginia, and versus project tourney and/or waiting line teams: @Miss St, Arkansas, Mississippi, @Wn Kentucky, Kentucky & Ohio State. They are 11-1 in their last 12, 10-2 in the road (12-3 including NC games), and won the #4 conference's regular season crown by 2 games.
Believe the Buffet, we recognize how good Kansas has looked, and how impressive that team is on on the court, and remember with a Big XII Tourney and a possible championship rematch with Texas, KU can get the big win to propel them ... but resumes are the name of the game, and Kansas' just doesn't quite measure up to Tennessee's quite yet:
Kansas' 27-3 (identical) record game against the 63rd ranked schedule, and their 14-0 non-conference was against the 162 ranked schedule. They are 6-2 against the RPI top 50, and have lost to a team outside the top 50 (#83 Oklahoma St) ... Whereas Tennessee's top wins are against teams ranked 3, 9, and 10 -- Kansas' best this season was Oklahoma (#24), Arizona (#29), and at Southern California (#31, which despite the RPI # is arguably their best win). They also beat Baylor (#32), split with Kansas St (#44), and beat up Texas A&M (63), but after that, it gets spotty, the only team left on their schedule of note is Texas Tech (it didn't help that this is a down year for Georgia Tech, Boston College, DePaul, and Big XII North not named 'Kansas State' .... they finished down the stretch 9-3, and 8-3 on the road. But between their weaker SOS #s, their failure to get the big Top 10 win (Texas), and the fact that even the Big XII best (Oklahoma, A&M, Okla St, and Tech) were a bit down numbers-wise, Kansas are the unfortunate victims of a #s crunch.
In this Buffet's Non-Expert Opinion of course.
**However, the Buffet not only appreciates the question because it is a good one, but it allowed the Buffet to spend extra time examing the tourney resumes of Tennessee and Kansas, and after spending much more time on the Villanovas, Floridas, and Ohio States of the world, the Buffet had forgotten what actual tourney-quality resumes looked like**
4 comments:
Nothing like a Lunch Buffet here on the East Coast! Thx!
BTW, do we root for IUPUI because of how sweet it is for what is effectively a satellite school of not one but two other schools? Or do we hate them because those two school are horrid, dreadful Big Slow teams?
I'm leaning towards rooting for them because the possibility of a satellite school going further in the dance than the other two teams is just too good.
For years, I've been operating under the assumption that we root for both IUPUI and IPFW because it's unique and thus kind of sweet that they're satellite schools of two schools. The fact that the orbited schools are dreadful Big Slow schools doesn't really factor in. I'll continue to do so unless advised to do differently by the Buffet.
I think it's also worth noting that IUPUI's coach is still cool, and IPFW is still called the Mastadons.
Go Terreros.
Tennessee gets the nod, in my view. They have 11 wins over the RPI Top 50, including probably the most impressive slate of non-con wins in the land. Kansas, by contrast has only 12 wins over the entire RPI Top 100. I view Kansas's resume to date as closer to the second-tier of schools (i.e., Xavier, Vandy, G'Town, Louisville) than the dead-cert 1 and 2 seeds.
I assume Schwartz noted that Rob Jones of San Diego is the grandson of noted psychopath, religious nut, and Kool-Aid spokesperson Jim Jones? Sometimes I miss details in the tsunami of information he provides.
Unfortunately, the Buffet never got to the WCC Preview (and the DYK for that conference), so it appreciates Avid Reader, and future Columnist, DS' notation of Rob Jones' family lineage.
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