Preaching to the Choir...

[mathguy]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but after tonight's game...

Auburn is 9-10 vs. Quad1&2, with 3 Q1 wins 20-12 (10-8 SEC)
Arkansas is 7-11 vs. Quad1&2 with 3 Q1 wins 20-13 (8-10 SEC)
Miss St. is 7-11 vs. Quad1&2 with 4 Q1 wins 21-12 (8-10 SEC)
Vandy is 10-10 vs. Quad1&2 with 5 Q1 wins 20-13 (11-7 SEC)

Also, Vandy beat all of those other 3 teams.

Most bracket predictions have the first 3 teams in the tournament and Vandy on the bubble or currently out.

Why is that exactly?

[mathguy]

SEC Network announcer says he just texted Lunardi "Where's Vanderbilt now?" and got a reply "4th team out"

Ridiculous!!!!

[VUrower28]

Might just have to win the whole thing.

[UltimateVUFan]

Lunardi is an idiot who doesn’t have a real job. The committee will not overlook the relative body of work. They just punched their ticket.

[goodtimes05]

SEC Network announcer says he just texted Lunardi "Where's Vanderbilt now?" and got a reply "4th team out"

Ridiculous!!!!

Lunardi isn’t watching. Sad. Anyone who watches these recent wins can see this team on a NCAAT floor playing their butts off to the buzzer. This team has become my favorite team since we won the SEC tournament with CKS.

No matter what happens, I would hire any man on this team. And I think Stack deserves a new contract.

[OldDude]

I know I'm preaching to the choir, but after tonight's game...

Auburn is 9-10 vs. Quad1&2, with 3 Q1 wins 20-12 (10-8 SEC)
Arkansas is 7-11 vs. Quad1&2 with 3 Q1 wins 20-13 (8-10 SEC)
Miss St. is 7-11 vs. Quad1&2 with 4 Q1 wins 21-12 (8-10 SEC)
Vandy is 10-10 vs. Quad1&2 with 5 Q1 wins 20-13 (11-7 SEC)

Also, Vandy beat all of those other 3 teams.

Most bracket predictions have the first 3 teams in the tournament and Vandy on the bubble or currently out.

Why is that exactly?

because most bracketologists have their heads too far up their butts to see more than 20 miles from their own turf.

[OldDude]

Lunardi is an idiot who doesn’t have a real job. The committee will not overlook the relative body of work. They just punched their ticket.

sort of like an "influencer ". Should put on a tutu and sell his crap on TikTok. '

[VUaskew]

why do people give that arse-clown so much exposure anyway? He's not on the committee, so his opinions have no sway on who gets in or out. Miss State just got drubbed by Alabama. shouldn't that hurt their beloved NET ranking?

[Nashmann]

SEC Network announcer says he just texted Lunardi "Where's Vanderbilt now?" and got a reply "4th team out"

Ridiculous!!!!

Lunardi isn’t watching. Sad. Anyone who watches these recent wins can see this team on a NCAAT floor playing their butts off to the buzzer. This team has become my favorite team since we won the SEC tournament with CKS.

No matter what happens, I would hire any man on this team. And I think Stack deserves a new contract.

Stack just got an extension...with 2 years still left on his original contract.

[LawoftheWest]

Might just have to win the whole thing.

If we win the whole thing Lunardi would probably drop us to completely out.

[TwoSaints]

Lunardi is an idiot who doesn’t have a real job. The committee will not overlook the relative body of work. They just punched their ticket.

sort of like an "influencer ". Should put on a tutu and sell his crap on TikTok. '

I thought he already was…

[mathguy]

Might just have to win the whole thing.

Quoting the movie Mejor League doesn't make me feel better about this!!

Though strangely I want to sacrifice a live chicken before today's game now...

[mathguy]

Okay. Let's add UK to this list.

UK: 21-11 (12-7 SEC), 7-7 road/neutral, 12-8 vs Quad1&2, 6 Q1 wins, 2 Q3 losses, and 1 Q4 loss.
VU:20-13 (13-7 SEC), 8-8 road/neutral, 10-10 vs Q1&2, 5 Q1 wins, 2 Q3 losses and 1 Q4 loss.

UK Best wins: Michigan?, UT (twice), A&M, Auburn, Arkansas, Miss St
VU Best wins: Pitt, UT, UK (twice), Auburn, Arkansas, Miss St

In a vacuum, I'm willing to admit that UK's resume here is slightly better. Slightly better record. One extra Quad 1 win. Above .500 vs quad 1 & 2. Same bad losses we have though. Considering the head to head in our favor, if you were only comparing these two teams to each other though, an argument can be made in our favor.

UK is widely considered as likely a 6 seed, possibly a 7. We're are, in most bubble projections, out.

Other than UK being a top 5 team in the preseason poll and us being picked 13th in the SEC in the preseason, I really don't see much difference between those resumes.

Did I mention UK lost @Alabama by 26?

[cc11316]

At this point, I believe the SEC teams can be tiered as follows:

No brainers
1. Alabama
2. Texas A&M.
3. Missouri.

Seem to be locks but fading fast
4. Tennessee
5. Kentucky

The rest of the At-Large contenders (in order)
6. Vandy
7. Arkansas
8. Auburn
9. Miss State
10. Florida

It seems Vandy is really being punished for the Grambling, So. Miss losses [still #79 in KenPom] as those seem to greatly outweigh the recent winning streak and Quad 1 wins. It could be argued that Vandy is actually closer to number 3 on that list. What have you done lately should matter more than what you did in November/December. Just saying.

[mathguy]

At this point, I believe the SEC teams can be tiered as follows:

No brainers
1. Alabama
2. Texas A&M.
3. Missouri.

Seem to be locks but fading fast
4. Tennessee
5. Kentucky

The rest of the At-Large contenders (in order)
6. Vandy
7. Arkansas
8. Auburn
9. Miss State
10. Florida

It seems Vandy is really being punished for the Grambling, So. Miss losses [still #79 in KenPom] as those seem to greatly outweigh the recent winning streak and Quad 1 wins. It could be argued that Vandy is actually closer to number 3 on that list. What have you done lately should matter more than what you did in November/December. Just saying.

As I've made abundantly clear, I absolutely agree. According to Bracket Matrix (where we are now in on 6 of 104 predictions!!) Arkansas is predicted to be an 8, Auburn a 10, and Miss St an 11 (the first two in the field unanimously, Miss St in the field in 101 of 104 projections). Honestly, I can't find a reason even Arkansas should be ahead of us. We have a 10-10 record against Q1&2 ... they are 8-12. We have an 11-7 SEC record (13-7 counting the tourney) ... they were 8-10 (or 9-11). We have 5 Quad 1 wins ... they have 4. We're 8-8 in road/neutral games ... they are 6-10. Our best win (by NET rating) is over #4 UT (though I admit to wondering why UT is #4!) ... theirs is over #15 Sand Diego St. Both teams have identical 20-13 records.

The ONLY metric in which Arkansas is ahead of us is that we have worse losses.

Which means that if you have Arkansas ahead of us you are valuing losses to "bad" teams as more important than wins over good teams. Which is completely illogical. Wouldn't you want to prioritize wins as most important? No one gives up bonus points because our loss to Missouri was close...

The more I think about this, the more I think we deserve to be a stone cold LOCK at this point.