Loyola Chicago (8) vs. Georgia Tech (9), Friday, 4pm ET, TBS

Deleted member 2897

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00Burdell said:
Seth Greenburg was just on Packer/Durham and made two interesting predictions:
1. GT would be the first ACC team to exit the tournament;
2. Only one ACC team would make it to the Sweet 16

Alllllllllllllllllllrighty then.
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Only 2 teams by seed are expected to get there. The entire world is enamored with these biased models that say the ACC sucks this year.
 
jacketup

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bobongo said:
Yeah, I was mostly joking, although I do remember in particular an overtime game he ripped off from us once against Ugag. He is a bit of a showboat.
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That game is when I learned Valentine's name. And I haven't forgotten it. He seemed biased against us the entire game.
 
Northeast Stinger

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orientalnc said:
I certainly hope Greenberg is wrong, but he's not without considerable knowledge and experience. He could be dead on.
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I do not keep with basketball on the level of deeper analysis like I did 20-30 years ago but if I focused at that level today I would be extremely skeptical of any metric used this year to judge relative strength of teams. We simply don’t have enough data and the data we do have is tainted in my opinion. Teams had random hurdles and random breaks thrown at them faster that a survivor reality TV show. Teams played without rest, without practice, with long layoffs, without the solace of social relationships and with the constant threat of COVID hanging over them. To repeat, I am extremely skeptical about any “objective” analysis this year.

But I do know this. The only thing this season tested in an absolutely transparent way this year was “heart.” On that basis alone I would not pick against Tech in any game in this tournament.
 

RamblinRed

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bwelbo said:
Only 2 teams by seed are expected to get there. The entire world is enamored with these biased models that say the ACC sucks this year.
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This year it is harder than others to compare teams across conferences because there were alot fewer OOC games. Those games are what allows the various models and metrics to calibrate teams across conferences.

As far as Greenberg, he could certainly be 100% correct, though I hope he is not. We are the 2nd ACC team to play a game in the Tourney (VT plays FL before our game) and as was mentioned above there are rationales for the ACC to perform poorly - including generally low seeding and multiple teams dealing with COVID related issues (UVA, VT) where how much they have played is a factor.

Only 2 ACC Teams would be favored to make the Sweet Sixteen based on the brackets and one of those will not have had a single practice before playing this weekend, so saying only one ACC team makes the Sweet Sixteen is not exactly a hot take.
 

MtnWasp

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The metrics this year are severely polluted by schedule imbalances. The models still pump-out the numbers, but the basis for those numbers is weak. The standard error of the data is just so great this season that the significance of the numbers is dubious. That means the qualitative "eye-ball tests" are likely to be just as, if not more, valid than the metrics.

For this reason, the Tournament results will be fascinating.
 

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RamblinRed said:
This year it is harder than others to compare teams across conferences because there were alot fewer OOC games. Those games are what allows the various models and metrics to calibrate teams across conferences.

As far as Greenberg, he could certainly be 100% correct, though I hope he is not. We are the 2nd ACC team to play a game in the Tourney (VT plays FL before our game) and as was mentioned above there are rationales for the ACC to perform poorly - including generally low seeding and multiple teams dealing with COVID related issues (UVA, VT) where how much they have played is a factor.

Only 2 ACC Teams would be favored to make the Sweet Sixteen based on the brackets and one of those will not have had a single practice before playing this weekend, so saying only one ACC team makes the Sweet Sixteen is not exactly a hot take.
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Yea part of that is my main point - we were so disrespected as a conference, that most of our seeds require an upset to even win 1 game. So saying we suck, then giving us all terrible seeds, then predicting most of our teams exit quickly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
 

lv20gt

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The ACC does appear down this year to me. I don't think you need interconference games to judge the quality of the basketball.

FSU and UVA are good teams, but to me they wouldn't be competing for the regular season championship usually. Either there would be one clear team above the rest (think UVA in 17-18) or two teams ahead (think 18-19). Either way, I think they would likely be double byes, but in the 3-4 variety. Likewise I don't think VT gets a double bye most years (they might not have this year except for schedule). Our team, in my view the third best team, would normally either get the 4 seed or 5th seed having hopes towards the end of getting the 4 seed (compared to last year where we were a distant 5th after a clear top 4). So forth and so on until you get to the bottom third which would feel largely the same imo.

Now, is it as down as people make it out to be? I don't think so. I think the scheduling issues this year have just furthered the impact of, in my eyes, replacing a #1 team in the ACC with a #10 team. But I do think we are overall down this year.
 

RyanS12

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Got a dilemma for Friday.....
Kenny or Steph?
AAF2DB05-1F74-43A9-8894-5E07AB27EFE5.jpeg
 
bobongo

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jacketup said:
That game is when I learned Valentine's name. And I haven't forgotten it. He seemed biased against us the entire game.
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Yeah. I was at Stegman for that one. Between the one-sided officiating and woofing Ugaggers, what a depressing game. I don't usually carp about officials, and I don't know what Valentine's major malfunction was that day, but he seemed to have it in for Tech, or Hewitt, or both. His bias seemed to last a few years, too, but he was in rare form that day. I always worry a little when I see him out there. I think whatever was eating him has finally worn off, though. He still screws up but doesn't seem to be actually biased against us any longer.
 

gameface

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I was watching the Richmond/Toledo NIT game and noticed how much Richmond plays offense like us. They have a point guard who does it all, including getting steals. Their 5 is a mobile guy who moves well in the paint. They do play a lot of m2m though. And they beat Loyola by a point.
 
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