May 18, 2013

Brackets

Gators

I’ve spent about 10 minutes on college basketball this year, so I am no expert. But I still feel the need, as strange as that sounds, to make my picks this week.

And here they are:

I see the Final Four as Florida, Indiana, Duke and Ohio State, with Florida and Ohio State reaching the final and Florida winning it all.

My biggest upset? I don’t believe in Gonzaga and think Pittsburgh takes them down in the second round.


NCAA2013

Final Four and Championship Contenders

As of this writing there are 64 teams left in the Big East Invitational.  The question is who is going to the Final Four and who will win it all on April 4.  The table below will answer some of your questions.

I’ll help you narrow it down and you can figure it out from there.  Using our proprietary formula I’ve come up with the following candidates for the Final Four.

Final Four Contenders

Team Conference W-L Off Efficiency Def Efficiency RPI
Duke ACC 30-4 5 3 4
Kansas Big 12 32-2 4 12 1
Kansas State Big 12 22-10 50 27 23
Kentucky SEC 25-8 7 22 7
Louisville Big East 25-9 36 5 17
North Carolina ACC 26-7 37 7 6
Ohio State Big 10 32-2 1 10 2
Pittsburgh Big East 27-5 6 21 10
Purdue Big 10 25-7 18 8 12
San Diego State Mountain West 32-2 24 4 3
Syracuse Big East 26-7 17 16 18
Texas Big 12 27-7 19 1 11
West Virginia Big East 20-11 31 29 21

West Virginia and Kansas State are borderline Final Four candidates, and Purdue has dismissed a player after these numbers were finalized.  Can you eliminate them from this list?  Probably, but we’re all about formulas here so they are included.

So, I’ve eliminated 51 teams off the top, leaving us 13 potential Final Four teams.  That’s great and all, but who actually has a chance to actually win the championship?  We adjust our formula a tad and put more emphasis on offensive efficiency.

Title Contenders

 

Team Conference W-L Off Efficiency Def Efficiency RPI
Duke ACC 30-4 5 3 4
Kansas Big 12 32-2 4 12 1
Ohio State Big 10 32-2 1 10 2

Where is Pitt? Right on the cusp, but again, we’re all about formulas and this one leaves Pitt just shy of the OE for a national champion. That’s not to say Pitt couldn’t move up with a good first weekend, but as of this writing they aren’t quite there.

So we’ve narrowed it to 3 teams (with Pitt having a chance to be included next week). Mark it down. A #1 seed will win this year’s tournament.