It’s not duck time. It’s not rabbit season. It’s bracket time. Bracketology is the sweet science sporting activities followers are intrigued in correct now. In the Pac-12, that science is difficult to nail down.
Belief the science? No one seems to know what to do with the Pac-12’s teams.
Longtime California Golden Bear reporter and seasoned Pac-12 sports activities observer Jake Curtis, around at Athletics Illustrated, collected the unique bracketology seedings for the Pac-12’s four NCAA Tournament groups heading into the final weekend of the meeting regular year.
Right here is what he unearthed:
Just put, USC, Colorado, UCLA and Oregon seem to have NCAA Event berths certain, while Stanford desires to earn the Pac-12 Event to get in, and desires Oscar da Silva to perform to have any probability at that.
Only a handful of web pages have their projections of the 68-workforce area current adequately. Usa Nowadays is up to date by Wednesday games, and ESPN and CBS Athletics are current by means of Thursday game titles. Right here is how the Pac-12 contenders are seeded by these three:
USC: 9 (ESPN), 7 (CBS), 5 (United states of america Currently) – regular 7.
Colorado: 5 (ESPN), 9 (CBS), 8 (United states of america Nowadays) – common 7.3
UCLA: 6 (ESPN), 10 (CBS), 9 (United states of america Nowadays) – typical 8.3
Oregon: 8 (ESPN), 9 (CBS), 8 (Usa These days) – ordinary 8.3
Stanford: None of the 3 even have the Cardinal amid their initial four out.
UCLA’s No. 10 seed by Jerry Palm at CBS Sports is relating to for the reason that that would set the Bruins on the bubble. If they eliminate to USC Saturday and in the first round of the Pac-12 match, it may possibly get dicey for UCLA if there are a bunch of upsets in other meeting tournaments.
Also worrisome is the major change in the Pac-12 teams’ seeds on distinct sites. UCLA, Colorado and USC all have a hole of four spots from the greatest to the most affordable seed assigned to them. That implies observers really do not know what to make of Pac-12 groups.
Jake is entirely proper.
As a stage of comparison, @boettger_eli of @HeatCheckCBB explained on our USC Trojans podcast — recorded on Monday, March 1 — that USC is sitting among a 5 and a 6 seed. Given that USC crushed Stanford on Wednesday, it is affordable to say that Eli thinks USC’s flooring is a 6 seed.
I trust Eli Boettger far more than Joe Lunardi. However, in a pandemic, who appreciates if the committee is going to make conclusions with the very same believed procedures it has applied in previous years, or if it will benefit info sets in a way most folks anticipate.
Bracketology? Trusting the science is not advisable… simply because it is tough to know exactly where the science commences and finishes in this pandemic university hoops time.