kenpom

With its loss to Nevada tonight, Air Force joins an exclusive club of teams to go 0-20 in league play: 2005 Campbell, 2024 DePaul, and 2024 Cal Poly

75% chance of a bid thief out of the MAC. Has to be a record? kenpom.substack.com/p/conference...

We might be witnessing the first time an undefeated team isn't favored in its own conference tourney...

Miami avenges their 2003 Fiesta Bowl loss to Ohio.

No, that's bad. Single elimination rules.

Will is correct. You solve the 6 way tie fiasco by using WAB or conference SOS, but preferably WAB, as tiebreaker. All problems solved.

Got all of the week 1 conference tournament predictions up. Improbably, the 1-seed is favored in 14 out of 15 of these events. kenpom.substack.com/p/conference...

Sorry, I don't track that

Bill Self gone!

They were 4-6 vs the RPI top 50, the standard of the day, but would have been something like 1-10 against Q1's.

How did 2008 Kentucky get a tournament bid? 18-12 in a bad SEC with losses to Gardner Webb (by 16!) and San Diego. If you think the committee favors P5 teams now, there's no way a team like that sniffs the bubble these days. I don't even remember there being controversy about it.

It has changed, but final ratings from previous seasons are based on the current algorithm

Conference tournament season starts tonight. We'll post tourney probabilities with occasionally fun commentary here:

kenpom.substack.com/p/conference...

Tennessee lost the battle against Alabama 71-69, but won the war...for offensive rebounds by gathering 25 of 47 possible chances. This boosted the Vols' season-long OR% to 45.4%. Just 15 teams have finished with an OR% above 44 since 1997 and 14 of those cases occurred in 2001 or earlier.

Illinois had its 2nd-worst offensive game of the season and yet it was the 5th-best performance by a team facing Michigan this season.

It is WAB not WOB. kenpom.substack.com/p/it-is-wab-...

Kipp Kissinger will work his 100th game of the season tonight, 3 days ahead of last season's pace in which he set the modern human officiating record by working 117 games.

too soon

It's almost March and it still seems like so many broadcasters don't understand (the relatively simple) challenge rules.

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE MEN WON A BASKETBALL GAME

Moustapha Thiam lost his first jump ball of the season against Kansas today and then took it personally, etc. and proceeded to have the best game of his life. 28 pts in 30 minutes with 0 turnovers, his first game making multiple 3's this season, and a season-high 2 assists.

The concession option mitigates this tendency late in games, but early in games teams are probably too cautious. In close games, teams that put guards up with lead rocks tend to have better outcomes than teams that don't. I assume that idea extends to decisions later in an end but hard to confirm

Last night, teams averaged 76.4 ppg (thanks Alabama/Arkansas for your service). That beat the previous record for a February or March day over the past 30 years (min 50 games) by a point and a half. It was the 5th highest scoring day regardless of month. (This season now owns the top 6).

My ballad about three-point variance is a banger.

Canada had a strong incentive to lose because it meant avoiding the best team in the world in the semis. At least they didn't make a joke of the game and I wouldn't blame them for soft tanking. If you are into conspiracies, Brad Jacobs' last shot of the 10th end was an awful shot by his standards.

The altitude adds 2000 pounds

yep

yep, ACL

Kinda wondered how absurd Dybantsa's usage was going to be in the post-Saunders era and 46% against Arizona is a pretty phenomenal start.

I haven't looked it up, but only 9 of these were in the regular season, so it seems unlikely