WBB: Breaking Down The Selection Committee's First Top 16 Reveal

[RossWB]

@BraydonRoberts5

Late Thursday night, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee revealed its Top 16 teams if the tournament selection were to happen today. Reveals like this are important in that they take some of the speculation out of bracketology work; the top teams no longer have to guess where they stand. Analysts can review trends and determine what factors in a team’s resume that this particular committee likes better than others.

One note before we dig in: Thursday’s results — including Iowa’s loss at Indiana — were not factored into the committee’s rankings. It's doubtful that outcome would have changed much for Iowa anyway, but it’s still worth noting that the reveal wasn’t updated to account for that result.

Selection Committee’s Top 16​

1 Seeds
1—South Carolina (SEC)
2—Indiana (Big Ten)
3—Stanford (PAC 12)
4—UConn (Big East)
2 Seeds
5—LSU (SEC)
6—Utah (Pac 12)
7—Iowa (Big Ten)
8—Duke (ACC)
3 Seeds
9—Maryland (Big Ten)
10—Notre Dame (ACC)
11—Michigan (Big Ten)
12—Texas (Big 12)
4 Seeds
13—Virginia Tech (ACC)
14—North Carolina (ACC)
15—Villanova (Big East)
16—Ohio State (Big Ten)

Similarities and Differences Between Committee and ESPN​

The biggest difference for Iowa fans is that ESPN had Iowa 5th overall and the Committee had Iowa 7th overall. That said, ESPN thought the gap between 4 through 7 was fairly small, and there’s a good chance the Committee feels the same.

ESPN and the Committee’s Top 10 teams were all the same. The only difference of note in their top 10s was the Committee had Duke on the 2-line (8th overall) with Maryland as a 3-seed (9th overall), while ESPN switched the two with each other.

More substantially, ESPN was much higher on Ohio State (11th) than the Committee (16th). That’s bad news for Iowa, because Iowa’s win in Columbus is one of the best on its resume. Hopefully Ohio State will pick things up again and improve its standing.

The only team the Committee had in its top 16 that ESPN didn’t was Villanova (ESPN had FSU instead).

MORE HERE: https://iowa.rivals.com/news/wbb-selection-committee-first-top-16-reveal

 

[moondog24]

Wouldn’t want Iowa in the same bracket as South Carolina or Stanford. Too big and too talented. Would end up being Clark having to carry the whole show. Monica would be neutralized by them. Their best shot appears to be against Indiana.

 

[retrodent]

I think we will end up a 3 or 4 seed. Probably will lose one or two more this season and again in big tourney

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Honestly, because of our record, had the IU game been factored in, I don't think all that much would change for us. Maybe up one spot to 6, but we would still be behind LSU even if we had won at Indiana.

And yes, our best hope for getting to the Final Four is either ending up in Indiana's region, or one of the other 3 slip and Utah somehow slides into the top 4 and we end up with them.

I want nothing to do with South Carolina, Stanford, UConn and LSU (f*** that witch).

 

[UpstreamHawkeye]

I think Iowa has a fairly good chance if it plays UConn. Azzi Fudd's health is still a concern for them. And I don't know why, but Kate Martin and Gabby Marshall seem to always have a big game against UConn, at least in the two times they played.

It is still unclear how good LSU is. We will find out this weekend.