NCAA Tournament bracket live updates: Selection Sunday latest as VCU, Bama lock in bids

We’re about two and a half hours away from seeing the mount. So let’s talk about the mount and how it’s put together.

First of all, to determine the teams. Much of this is subjective. But most don’t. The idea is to standardize the committee’s decisions as much as possible. The last bracket will look very similar to most mock brackets. Some differences, yes, but many more similarities

Many misconceptions about the NET. It’s an organizational tool. The overall rank of a team is not that important. It reflects what is important, but rank itself means nothing.

The NET replaced the RPI because the RPI was purely results-based. The NET is results based but has predictive properties like those used in KenPom. The NET is designed to be correct on Selection Sunday when all the data is in.

So it’s a team’s record against all quads that counts, as well as the strength of the schedule. I quote quad plates like everyone else, but the margins don’t matter. A really high quad 2 is about the same as a low quad 1. No problem.

Many metric rankings are on the team “sheet” that the committee uses for each team. Each committee member is free to look at all other metrics as well. You may not like their conclusions, but nothing escapes them. You spend a lot more time on it than anyone else.

That’s why the “eye test” doesn’t really exist. Yes, they watch a lot of games, but what matters is the data. Nobody could watch every game. Not nearly! It’s better to look bad and win than look good and lose. The “eye test” is a feast for the eyes. It’s not a big deal.

I never liked it when people said, “We need more basketball players on the committee.” Meaning coach. Even coaches have their prejudices. What if a coach doesn’t like zone teams? Is that fair when they’ve won a lot of games in Zone? Minimize subjectivity.

Conflicts of interest are always talked about. Fair question! If you have college sports people on the committee, each of them represents a school or league or both. How do I handle this?

The rule is, when that school comes up for discussion, the person leaves the room. When it is time to vote, the person CANNOT vote for the team. The name is “grayed out” on the computer screen. It’s literally impossible to cheat, even if they wanted to. (They don’t.)

Not to mention there are 12 members in the room. Even if you wanted to exercise a bias, the math doesn’t work.

Feel free to disagree with their decisions. You can get it wrong, but it’s not because someone is cheating.

Subjectivity comes into play in the discussion, especially when it comes to the end result. All bubble teams are flawed. The question is, what weaknesses are you willing to overlook? Interesting that the biggest decisions are also the most subjective. It’s about a lot.

Can’t say it often enough: Conferences don’t matter. Conference recordings are irrelevant per se. What matters is who you played against, where and how you played. If 11 Big Ten teams deserve to get in, they will. (Don’t worry, it’s only nine.)

Also: Every game counts the same, whether at the beginning of November or today. The committee used to have a category for ‘last 10 games’, then it went to ‘last 12’. Now it doesn’t exist. Keep this in mind when discussing conference tournament results.

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