Houston finally picked up a Quad 1 win and what a win it was. The Cougars won at Kansas 92-86 in double overtime and picked up another Quad 1 win without playing another game after UCF’s win vs. TCU moved the Knights, who lost to the Jayhawks earlier this season, back into the top 75.
The Cougars have been in the top ten in the NET all season mostly because they are the No. 1 team in average scoring margin. The win over Kansas is a big step toward putting together a NCAA Tournament resume befitting that ranking.
Houston was the biggest mover in Monday’s bracket, jumping to a No. 3 seed from a No. 5 seed on Friday. The Cougars were also helped by the fact that the teams that were ninth through 14th in Friday’s 1-68 rankings all lost except for Purdue, which whipped Michigan 91-64 Friday night.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s bracket and full field of 68 at the Bracketology hub.
One of the teams that lost over the weekend was Oregon, which suffered a 77-69 defeat at Minnesota. Oddly, that was the Ducks’ first loss away from home this season. They have eight Quad 1 wins, but the only one that came on their home floor was to Maryland. Oregon has lost at home to Illinois, Purdue and UCLA and is a No. 4 seed in the updated bracket.
Other teams in the top 20 of the NET that do not have profiles that match those rankings include No. 8 seed Texas Tech, No. 9 seed Gonzaga and No. 10 seed Maryland. You will not be surprised to learn that all three of those teams are in the top eight in average scoring margin.
The Red Raiders have been hurt by an especially poor nonconference strength of schedule, which means relatively few quality opponents so far. They have only played nine games against Quad 1 and 2 teams with seven of those in Big 12 play with losses to Texas A&M and St. Joseph’s as the two nonconference games.
Gonzaga played its usual challenging nonconference schedule, but was mostly not up to the task. The Bulldogs are just 2-4 in nonconference Quad 1 games with their best win coming against Baylor at home. The only one of those opponents seeded above No. 7 in Monday’s bracket is Kentucky. Losses in conference at Oregon State and especially at home to Santa Clara hurt also.
Maryland joined the bracket after its best week of the season so far. The Terrapins won at shorthanded Illinois 91-70 Thursday and at Indiana 79-78 Sunday. That is two of their three Quad 1 wins. Maryland is another team that is hampered by a poor non-conference schedule, which has eight Quad 4 games on it, along with Syracuse and Villanova, neither of which look to be tournament teams this season. The only noteworthy game was a visit from Marquette in early November, which was a 78-74 loss.
Gaudy computer metrics are nice, but if all you have is computer rankings, you have nothing. The committee may have created a ranking that leans very heavily on scoring margin, but when it deliberates in March, it will talk a lot about who you played and who you beat and don’t care at all about how much you beat them by.
