Friday, March 10, 2017

Friday Quick Thoughts and Why Vanderbilt > Syracuse

Lots of action yesterday and I'm still going over the numbers.  Illinois and Iowa are out for good while Marquette and Illinois State appear to be the biggest questions now that they have no more games to play.  Kansas State and California continue to knock on the door and Rhode Island begins their A-10 action today.
One thing of note as I was going through things this morning.  Syracuse, who I had in, and Vanderbilt, who was my 3rd out had very similar resumes.  Syracuse was 6-8 against the top 50, which is Lunardi (ESPN's?) rational for letting them in.  Well, Vanderbilt is 5-8.  What does 1 more win mean you ask?  Not much....until you look at the other numbers:

Wins vs 51-100: Syracuse 2-1, Vandy 5-5
Non-Conf SOS: Syracuse #198, Vandy #1
RPI: Syracuse 86, Vandy 43
KenPom: Syracuse 48, Vandy 36

In fact, the only number that Syracuse is better at than Vanderbilt is the ESPN invented BPI which is Syracuse 31 to Vanderbilt's 44.

I guess they both could make it at this point but I don't see how Syracuse could be ahead of Vanderbilt in anybody's bracket.

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