Re: 2005 NCAA Division I Championships - BRACKET
VolleyballORG@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Winners -
7 Big12 (including Kansas, Texas A&M)
6 SEC
Losers -
Missing - New Mexico State, Iowa State
Big West 2
Big East 2
<These are my opinions, but you are welcome to share them.
We'll just have to wait a couple of weeks to see how the
predictions match the results.>
Overall, it's not the worst job I've seen the committee do, but
it's not the best, either. Hawai'i got shafted the worst, while
Florida, as usual (except for last year, although I think some folks
on the committee thought that Stanford would not be much of a problem
for them - and they were almost right) gets a fairly easy ride to
the regional finals.
Another loser: Wichita State (23rd in AVCA poll, 15th in
Rich Kern's Pablo ranking), but not in the tournament.
For the first time, Pacific is out of the tournament, but I think
losing to Sac State (in five) and St. Mary's (in five) this last
weekend sealed their fate. Cal Poly may have sealed theirs by
losing to Pacific a couple of weeks ago (although the early losses:
3-0 to San Francisco and 3-1 to Northridge didn't help).
Some more winners: Penn State, hosting Cornell, Long Island, and
Binghamton - either LIU or Cornell gets into the second round, which
is certainly unfair to a whole bunch of teams who have to play much
better opponents to get there. North Carolina may have beat
Maryland at home to win the ACC, but they lost on the road to
Miami and Florida State - and for this they get rewarded with
hosting the first two rounds, and having Purdue as the seeded team
(undeservedly seeded, by my reckoning - Minnesota would have been
a better choice, if you want a Big Ten school). Loyola Marymount
looked pretty good when they played Santa Clara, but they are still
not a top 32 team (losing to Portland on the road, for example).
Utah, while they are playing well lately, also has a couple of bad
road losses (New Mexico and San Diego State). Maryland and Kentucky
should face tougher opponents than each other in the first round.
And Duke got a real gift, with American in the first round, although
then they get Nebraska.
And some more losers: Santa Clara and Sacramento State both deserve
an easier first round opponent than each other, although perhaps
Sac State's loss to Ohio and Santa Clara's loss to Cal were their
downfall in the committee's eyes. San Diego and Long Beach State
also are too good to play each other in the first round. Same for
Northwestern and Texas A&M: Northwestern could have been sent
to State College instead. UCSB gets USC in the first round - it
would have been more equitable to send Loyola Marymount to USC and
ship UCSB to Utah.
It gets worse when you look at the second round. Nebraska,
Penn State, Louisville (vastly overrated - they beat Long Beach State
early, but so did Cal Poly), and Purdue have an easy path to the
Sweet Sixteen. On the other hand, UCLA (assuming they beat Kansas)
gets the winner of the San Diego - Long Beach match, and Wisconsin
and California each deserve easier opponents. But I'd bet that the
Hawai'i fans are screaming already, because they might as well have
seeded Texas seventh and not seeded Hawai'i - who will be playing at
Texas in the second round. That is simply gross injustice. They
would have done much better to seed Texas instead of Tennessee or
Purdue (Minnesota will take out Tennessee, but Purdue should have
no problem advancing to the Sweet Sixteen, even in Chapel Hill),
and send Hawai'i to Chapel Hill (they deserve an easier opponent
than Minnesota). Arizona would have an easy second round if they
were not playing in Salt Lake City, but they should still make
the Sweet Sixteen.
As for the third round, I think that Florida has it pretty easy -
I'd bet Stanford and Penn State would prefer Louisville to USC and
Minnesota, respectively. I'm glad the regional finals are on TV
again - I'm looking forward to recording them. They should all be
excellent matches. And then I get to see the survivors in the
Final Four.
I'm looking forward to the next few weeks!
Take care.
Mark
-- Go, Cardinal!
.
