We all know Jerry Palm. He is probably more accurate then Joey Buckets. Well let’s take a look at his latest proposed bracket and the flaw inherent in it. A gaping flaw. Yet a gaping flaw even endorsed by the likes of Jay Bilas.
Let’s examine 3 teams to prove the fallacy. The fallacy which keeps out deserving mid-majors and inserts politically connected Power 5 teams.
He has both Oklahoma and Clemson in the Tournament. Inconceivable, but real. Clemson is 15-10 and 5-7 in the ACC. They played cupcake city OOC and that included the scintillating 8-point win over Radford.
Oklahoma is 16-10 and 4-9 in the Big 12.They played a bit tougher schedule, including the Battle for Atlantis but the eye test does not provide them with too many kudos.
Now let’s move on to Yale from the Ivy. The Elis are 17-4 and they have a major problem. Not only wouldn’t Clemson or Oklahoma play them home and away, but no Connecticut team would play them at all this year. Anywhere. Not UConn, who they beat in their last meeting. Not Fairfield, coached by Sydney Johnson, a former Ivy player and coach at Princeton. Not even CCSU.
Yale beat Miami on the road and Cal at a neutral site. They were robbed at Memphis in triple overtime, but that game probably would not be the decider.
Here is the issue. Yale sits at 17-4 and 7-1 in the very tough Ivy, the 10th toughest conference in the country. One which owns wins over Arizona State, Villanova, the aforesaid Miami by 2 teams and many more.
If Yale sweeps the rest of the Ivy season, wins its first game in the Ivy tourney and then loses to say Harvard in the tourney final, they will finish the season at 24-5 and by all accounts not have a sot at all of any NCAA consideration.They would be an NIT team by virtue of winning the Ivy regular season title.
Yale boasts Miye Oni, certainly one of the top 30 players in the country and a sure NBAer. They also are one of the top rebounding teams in the country and have received kudos from no less than Coach K., after a defeat at Cameron in December.
The NET penalizes a team like Yale and teams like Belmont and Murray State from the OVC, who can’t get games with quality OOC teams.
So once again we will see 8 teams from the Big Ten,ACC and Big 12 and the deserving mid-majors will get left out in the cold. Some system.