re: Alabama 71 @ Tennessee 69 Final - ESPN

We got to win out in the regular season to feel good about a 3 seed. And getting a 3 seed is HUGE.

Getting up to the 2 line would probably take winning the SECT imo.

I just hope we beat UGA in this tough turnaround spot.

While AU could play inspired and give us trouble, no way they should sneak up on us since we have 4 days to prep and it’s senior night.

In terms of seeding, we had a better WAB than Vandy and the committee ranked them above us in their only prelim ranking. Hard to know how much we’re going to get hit with a Bediako bias, but the teams ahead of us have very good records and very strong metrics. Will be tough to even get to the 3 seed line let alone the 2. We’d need some serious upsets (e.g. Purdue just lost to OSU despite being favored by 6.5 and they barely moved down in Kenpom…still 7th. They’ll take a hit on WAB but they have better metrics and beat us on our home court. Gonzaga similar story…doubt we are jumping either of those 2s, and that still leaves FL/UConn, and ISU filling up the 2s)

Texas Tech had a huge road upset of a top 5ish ISU yesterday and MSU won pretty easily at Indiana today. Both of those are ahead of us on the 4 seed line according to Lunardi. There are just a lot of good teams with quality Net/Kenpom ratings ahead of us that also happen to be name brands. Doubt this committee is going to have any desire to put Oats over Izzo if they can at all justify it.

If we want any chance of 3 seed, we probably need to win out until the finals of the SECT and likely need to do it convincingly for teams like AU and whoever we play 1st in Nashville to get our NET up. Given the 1 seeds this year, a 3 seed instead of a 4 seed would be massive.

quote:

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The fact that y'all are discussing paths to potential 2 and 3 seeds in a year where we faced the hardest schedule in the country, have gotten minimal production from our transfers, lost 3 guys for the season, and everyone on the roster has missed a lot of time to injuries is a real testament to how great of a coach Oats is. My fellow old people will fondly remember memeing 17-9, obsessively bubble watching, and crying ourselves to sleep after a late February disaster against a terrible UGA or Auburn. This is far more enjoyable.

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I 2nd this.

Even the days of Gottfried where we knew we were in, it was just a question of when were our deficiencies at coaching going to cost us the game in the NCAAT. Now we often have a coaching advantage heading into a game (out of bounds plays, timeout use, and late game subs not withstanding).

UGA opens up -2.5….. don’t like that