2015 Bracketology Thread

[Lebanese4Life]

Off topic but was ponyfans down for like the last 18 hours? Wasn't able to pull up the page.. Looked as if the domain expired or something

[Pony_Law]

Off topic but was ponyfans down for like the last 18 hours? Wasn't able to pull up the page.. Looked as if the domain expired or something

It was down and I think it was hacked I'm still getting the bad page and am having to clear data a lot to keep it working.

[ponyte]

I see us dropping a seed after today. WE are not established enough t survive a lose even against the defending NC in their House.

[Puckhead48E]

Yeah...still see us as an 8 at the highest. Don't trust the committee to do anything right because there is no financial/tv ratings reason to rank us higher.

[JasonB]

Not sure we drop much, but I think the quality of basketball in that game may get the conference another team in the tourney

[ponyfan37]

CBS- 6 seed vs. winner of A&M/Illinois play-in game . Then face winner of Notre Dame/NCCU.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/bracketology

[ponyfan37]

ESPN- 6 seed vs. Boise State then face winner of OU/Georgia State.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

[skyscraper]

Consensus six seed, even after the loss to UCONN. Nice.

[PonyFan32]

I hope what ESPN has in their bracket is right. Then I can dream that we'll make the Sweet 16 and I can see the team in person in Houston. Not to mention that we would have a crazy crowd at that game given the significance of it for the program and the distance from campus.

[DiamondM]

Lord almighty that ESPN bracket is to die for (except for the personal nightmare of SMU playing Duke -- literally, I've actually had that nightmare. But even my subconsious rooted for SMU by the way). If we made it to Sweet 16, which looks doable with those possible matchups, regionals would be easy driving distance in Houston.

Must tamp down my excitement for now, though. Can't get my hopes up because the sports gods do not usually shine on me. Hope this year changes that.

Let's win regular season and tourney, and then we can focus on what comes next.

[ponyfan37]

That SMU-OU game is my nightmare.

[RGV Pony]

Would love to see it. Dude I know from Oklahoma was in Dallas a few weeks ago and went to barley house "hoping to see the Thunder game" but was overrun by pony fans watching our game. A few of his friends chimed in "I didn't even know they had a basketball team" and still more popped off "yeah well they're cheating as usual for them and LB"

[sadderbudweiser]

Boise State is playing very well right now. That would be a fun bracket.

[Harry0569]

Connecticut's home upset of SMU didn't just upset the conference title race with two games to play. It also showcased a more connected Huskies defense, and an offense with a sudden bevy of viable weapons, namely Daniel Hamilton and Rodney Purvis. Somewhere, Ryan Boatright is wondering what took them so long. In any case, sorry, UConn fans. We empathize with your eager Twitter questions, but we're sorry to say that the response is almost always no. No, UConn's not in the tournament. No, UConn's not even on the bubble. No, UConn can't get in without winning next week's conference tournament at the XL Center in Hartford. The only yes here is whether we think Kevin Ollie's team might do exactly that. If they play like they did against SMU, well, why not?

Tulsa [21-7 (14-2), RPI: 37, SOS: 123] Four straight wins, combined with SMU's loss to UConn, have seen the Golden Hurricane climb to a half-game lead atop the conference standings. When bracket folks -- including our own Joe Lunardi -- build their masterpieces, they include each league's first-place team as a stand-in for that league's automatic bid, which will ultimately go to whomever wins the conference tournament. Don't let the conceptual distinction fool you: Tulsa is very much on the bubble. The past few weeks have undeniably improved Tulsa's standing. Since back-to-back losses to SMU and Connecticut in early February, Tulsa has won four in a row, including a home game against fellow bubbler Temple and Saturday's hard-fought road win over Memphis. The wins are especially helpful to a profile that features no top-50 victories outside a sweep of Temple, and just five top-100 wins, which is the unfortunate cost of doing business in this shaky new-look American. The good news for Tulsa is the bounty available in the final week of the regular season: Wednesday's home game against Cincinnati and a Sunday trip to SMU.

Temple [20-9 (11-5), RPI: 40, SOS: 62] To be totally honest, and slightly break the fourth wall, we don't have a whole lot else to add about Temple at this point. The Owls have played just one game (an easy home win over Houston) since a dire 39-point outing at Tulsa on Feb. 22. Thanks to elite defense -- like, top-10 in-overall-adjusted-efficiency-level elite defense -- the Owls have posted some of the most promising non-SMU efficiency margins in their league, and they've looked their best throughout conference play, as Fran Dunphy's rotation has gotten whole. But the lack of quality wins (apart from a 25-point blowout of Kansas, of course) made this a somewhat bottom-heavy resume. Fourteen of Temple's 20 victories have come against teams ranked outside the RPI top 150. Assuming it wins at East Carolina Thursday, that's 15 of 21. That KU win may end up being the difference between a double-digit seed that is nonetheless safely in the field and a trip to Dayton, or even worse. The lesson, as always: Every game matters.

Cincinnati [20-9 (11-5), RPI: 50, SOS: 72] The Bearcats' win Saturday was of a piece with the previous week's work: Three games against bad teams (Houston, UCF, Tulane), three wins, no resume improvement, no real damage. Wednesday's game at Tulsa is a change of pace in this regard, and a chance to knock off a bubble competitor on its own floor in March. Speaking of bubble competitors, the Bearcats have more top-50 wins than most, five in total, including two over SMU. That should help in any committee argument wherein at least one of the members cares less about bad losses (Cincinnati has two, at ECU and vs. Tulane) than about a show of strength against potential tournament teams. A top-35 nonconference schedule also helps a lot. But Cincinnati's top-50 wins aren't so good as to lift them off the bubble entirely, or even help them avoid Dayton, which is where they began the Bubble Watch at the beginning of February. That makes this week's games -- especially the Tulsa trip -- as big as any this season.

[ojaipony]

Would love to see it. Dude I know from Oklahoma was in Dallas a few weeks ago and went to barley house "hoping to see the Thunder game" but was overrun by pony fans watching our game. A few of his friends chimed in "I didn't even know they had a basketball team" and still more popped off "yeah well they're cheating as usual for them and LB"

Ask them where they went to school. Usually shuts them up.