NCAA Bracketology For One Location, Part VI
The Bracket's out for Sacramento. Who's final prediction was the best? And how bad is the worst? (narrator: very, very bad)
It was weird watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show after doing this series. For the past several weeks I had insisted that UCLA and Gonzaga would be the two main teams selected for Sacramento, with Arizona being placed in Denver. I did say that I wouldn’t be surprised if Arizona got the nod for Sacramento, but that I believed Gonzaga would be shipped no further east than Denver. The six bracketologists I’m following here disagreed with that for the most part throughout this series, shipping Gonzaga to such far reaches of the globe as Greensboro, Orlando, and Albany.
So I was very interested to see what the committee actually did. The South region was the very first region revealed on Selection Sunday. And they put Arizona as the South two-seed in Sacramento, right off the bat. Which meant Gonzaga was going elsewhere, because UCLA was absolutely coming to town. I didn’t mind being wrong, because I knew it was a possibility, but now I was glued to see if they screwed over Gonzaga and sent them globe-trotting.
And within that South region reveal, Orlando was filled up with teams that weren’t Gonzaga. And the next region was the Midwest, and that filled up Greensboro with teams that weren’t Gonzaga. And then Texas was sent to Des Moines, and they were one of the teams that all the “experts” predicted would be part of Denver along with Baylor. That made me feel a lot better about the Gonzaga-to-Denver chances.
Then it was time for the West region reveal. First up was Kansas, my alma mater, getting the number one seed. Which means a trip to Vegas for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 is a tantalizing possibility, however unlikely it is for me to make it there.
Next up, UCLA got the 2-seed and was placed in Sacramento, which was exciting to see it made official. I told the people I was watching it with that the experts had all said UNC-Asheville would be the 15-seed… and they were! If you recall, last week every one of our six Bracketologists had predicted UNC-Asheville would be a 15-seed in Sacramento. And it happened! Very neat.
And then Gonzaga got the 3-seed in the West and was placed in Denver. I felt pretty good about my takes.
So now it’s time to look at the actual teams headed to Sacramento, and then compare the final predictions from our six Bracketologists. Some of these are pretty good… and one is quite possibly the worst bracket I have ever seen, and I don’t know how this guy has a job.
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) Northwestern vs. (10) Boise State
South: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Princeton and (7) Missouri vs. (10) Utah State
with Gonzaga a 3-seed in Denver in the West Region
I remember seeing Northwestern and Boise State in a few of the predictions along the way and Missouri once way back when I started, but Princeton was never a prediction, nor to my recollection was Utah State. Let’s see just how wrong these “experts” were.
Correct placements in bold italic, right team wrong spot in italic, and completely wrong in regular font.
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) Kentucky vs. (10) Boise State
Midwest: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Montana State and (7) Auburn vs. (10) Michigan State
and Gonzaga as a 3-seed in Denver in the South Region
3 perfect, 1 right team wrong spot, and 4 completely wrong
Joey Brackets doing what Joey Brackets does. We complain about him a lot but this is a pretty good final prediction bracket, no matter how off he was in the lead-up. Confirming his good seed, bad location status, he had Northwestern as a 7 in Columbus, Princeton a 14 in Greensboro, Missouri a 7 in Des Moines, and Utah State an 11 in Greensboro. So 6-of-8 correct in seed lines if not location. In reality, Kentucky is a 6, Montana State a 14, Michigan State a 7 and Auburn a 9.
South: (3) UCLA vs. (14) UC-Santa Barbara and (6) Iowa State vs. (11) Pitt
West: (2) Gonzaga vs. (15) Colgate and (7) Kentucky vs. (10) Boise State
and Arizona a 2-seed in Denver in the Midwest Region (against UNC-Asheville, funnily enough)
1 perfect, 1 right team wrong spot, and 6 completely wrong
Hey, CBS Sports, do yourself a favor and hire somebody who has a clue. Literally the only team he got exactly right was Boise State as the 10-seed in the West. Underseeded UCLA yet again- he was the only “expert” to consistently drop them to a 3-seed even though they have been in the Top-10 rankings since August, practically- and just looks like he has no idea what he’s doing.
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Montana State and (7) Missouri vs. (10) Penn State
Midwest: (2) Arizona vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) Northwestern vs. (10) Providence
with Gonzaga a 3-seed in Denver in the Midwest Region
1 perfect, 4 right team wrong spot, and 3 completely wrong
Frankly, not bad at all, and looks even better after that Jerry Palm trainwreck. So close for UNC-Asheville, Missouri and Northwestern. He had Boise State as a 9 in Birmingham, Princeton as a 14 in Albany, and Utah State in an 11-seed Play-in game. (5-of-8 seed lines) Penn State is still a 10, with Providence an 11 and Montana State a 14.
Bracketville (Bracketguy Dave)
Midwest: (2) UCLA vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) Illinois vs. (10) Creighton
West: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Montana State and (7) Michigan State vs. (10) Boise State
with Gonzaga a 3-seed in Denver in the West Region
1 perfect, 3 right team wrong spot, and 4 completely wrong
Yeah, he got the UCLA- UNC-Asheville matchup right but has it in Midwest and not the West. Oddly just like Jerry Palm his only totally correct team is Boise State, but feels much more accurate despite the incorrect regions. Did get the Gonzaga pick spot-on. Had Princeton as a 14 in Albany, Northwestern as a 7 in Denver, and Missouri/Utah State as a 7/10 matchup in Columbus, so fake bonus points for that, as well as having 7 of the 8 seed lines correct if in the wrong spots. Illinois is actually a 9, Creighton a 6 (big miss there, negative fake points for that), Montana State a 14 and Michigan State a 7.
Delphibracketology (group effort)
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Montana State and (7) Northwestern vs. (10) Utah State
Midwest: (2) Arizona vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) FAU vs. (10) Illinois
with Gonzaga a 2-seed in Denver in the East Region
2 perfect, 3 right team wrong spot, and 3 completely wrong
One more time, big ups to the high school kids from Delphi, Indiana, for being just as good as these professional experts most of the time, and much much better than them in case of Jerry Palm.
Had Princeton as a 15 in Denver, Missouri as a 7 in Denver and Boise State as a 9 in Birmingham. That’s 7-of-8 perfect seed lines. As we have noted previously Montana State is a 14 and Illinois a 9, and FAU is a 9 as well.
This is the best overall bracket so far for our purposes. They are the only bracket to have Princeton correctly seeded as a 15 and just the second to have Utah State correctly as a 10. And these are high schoolers!
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) Michigan State vs. (10) Boise State
Midwest: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Vermont and (7) Missouri vs. (10) Utah State
with Gonzaga a 3-seed in Columbus in the East Region
3 perfect, 3 right team wrong spot, and 2 completely wrong.
So, so close to having 6-of-8 perfect. He did have the first 3-for-4 since Lunardi. But putting Arizona as the Midwestern 2-seed was the fatal error. (He had Marquette as the 2-seed in the South). He had Northwestern as a 7 in Des Moines (with Marquette) and Princeton as a 14 in Greensboro, so that’s another went 7-of-8 in seed lines. However, he also was the only one to push Gonzaga east of Denver, putting two Big 12 teams there instead, as everyone else had done until their final, final brackets. Michigan State is still a 7 and Vermont a 15 (facing Marquette and in Columbus, coincidentally, completing that circle). A very good bracket but just a little off, like cheese crackers that aren’t Cheez-Its.
So, let’s wrap up our Bracketologist analysis: don’t trust Jerry Palm, ever. Trust the kids at Delphi High School in Indiana more than that guy. And he works for CBS, who is the main broadcaster of the tournament!
The thing is… nobody cares about Bracketology now that the real thing is here. Jerry Palm will get no negative feedback whatsoever from his bosses. He did his job and kept getting the clicks throughout the season, and his last, horrible bracket basically had a shelf life of a couple hours. It doesn’t matter that his last bracket was a total disaster. And that is a problem. But Jerry Palm knows he was terrible, and now, so do you.
Let’s end with something positive, though: I’m looking forward to seeing the games in Sacramento, and it really doesn’t matter who was going to be there. It’s gonna be fun, and that’s the point of the whole thing.