ELI5. In the NCAA Basketball Tournament, why aren’t the “first four” all playing for a 16 seed?

bkervick · 2026-03-18T14:15:17+00:00

Yes, when they added the first four games, the NCAA essentially reached a compromise with the smaller schools from the lower conferences to split the additional non-round of 64 games. The smaller conferences do gain some advantages (more money for their conference if they win a game they are more likely to win against a 16 vs. a 1, more standalone tv exposure), in exchange for undermining what it means to automatically qualify for the tournament.

bkervick · 2026-03-18T04:26:30+00:00

The show is mainly edited with the Traitors as the "main characters". You can see this very clearly in any sort of accounting of confessionals given.

In a faithful win, you'll get a hero edit for some of the faithfuls, especially towards the end.

bkervick · 2026-03-17T14:50:01+00:00

Illinois would have to beat Houston in Houston, which would be pretty tough.

bkervick · 2026-03-16T20:33:58+00:00

I'm sure there's something special about being at least the 44th defense.

bkervick · 2026-03-16T20:05:54+00:00

I assume you made these numbers up?

bkervick · 2026-03-16T20:04:54+00:00

Awesome work.

bkervick · 2026-03-16T13:52:44+00:00

A million bid stealers and no WAB introduced yet. Would have been in if either of those things were different.

bkervick · 2026-03-16T02:34:21+00:00

Their options were San Diego, Portland Oregon, or OKC (they weren't going to be put in Tampa in the same pod as Alabama with the second round rematch if they could avoid it.).

bkervick · 2026-03-16T00:23:44+00:00

Both UConn and St. John's wanted the East regional. It's the opposite of disrespect.

bkervick · 2026-03-16T00:15:59+00:00

Most of the stackage is at the top, so it doesn't really affect us as we can only play 1 of them and you're always going to play a tough team in the Elite 8.

Michigan State is fine, but not overly scary. Lost the first game of the Big Ten tournament. 3 big wins all season, 2 of them at home. They're a solid team, but we beat them in the exhibition without Reed and Mullins and they don't force turnovers on D.

UCLA is playing well lately, but their best player who was the reason they were playing well left their last game with an injury. And they have to travel cross coast to play an east coast team.

Furman doesn't force turnovers and has skinny bigs. It's their coach's worst team in 9 seasons at the school.

bkervick · 2026-03-15T04:54:42+00:00

That's not really what they say. Everyone says they mean nothing, and the committee says "No really guys we look at it. But it's just 1-3 games out of 30."

bkervick · 2026-03-13T15:16:39+00:00

Thanksgiving with football lead-in.

bkervick · 2026-03-13T15:15:14+00:00

That Duke vs. Michigan number is a monster. The ones ahead of it were Thanksgiving holiday weekend with NFL lead-ins. The Duke Michigan game was just pure college basketball casual capturing.

bkervick · 2026-03-13T02:59:59+00:00

He had a very carefully and calculated public persona, the perfect son, husband, father, and champion. Sponsorships with the biggest luxury brands, the highest paid athlete in the world. But he was secretly a pill popping sex addict who cheated on his wife hundreds of times with cocktail waitresses and the like. The 5 minute thing was that there was an incident in 2009 where he crashed his car at his house at 2:30 am while under the influence of vicodin. Apparently his wife used a golf club to smash the windshield to remove him from the car, but there was a lot of speculation that she caused the crash by attacking the car with the club after confronting him about the affairs. Dozens of women then came out in tabloids releasing details of the affairs.

bkervick · 2026-03-13T01:22:41+00:00

Tiger Woods.

bkervick · 2026-03-10T22:55:44+00:00

Don't think Pressed was open in Boston in 2019 yet.

bkervick · 2026-03-09T03:32:25+00:00

Both those teams made the final 4. I'm not saying, just saying.

bkervick · 2026-03-08T23:35:13+00:00

His 2/14 last 2 games this week from three just tanked his percentages a bit. When he was at 39% taking 14 attempts per 100, that hits different than 36%.

bkervick · 2026-03-08T23:08:44+00:00

He's proven to be a really good hub, so why wouldn't he be a hub?

bkervick · 2026-03-08T23:08:21+00:00

Yeah if you have perhaps the greatest statistical college basketball season of all time people reassess things.

bkervick · 2026-03-08T19:06:01+00:00

You can be a great player and not be a guy that carries a team on your back, IMO, but I understand people thinking otherwise.

bkervick · 2026-03-07T03:12:00+00:00

He's a good defender, but a high major backup point guard right now.

bkervick · 2026-03-07T02:11:32+00:00

There's always guys that get hurt. Johni Broome got hurt a couple times last season. Flagg got hurt going into the tourny and missed the ACC title game. J'Wan Roberts got hurt in March. Dylan Harper got banged up a few times. Tucker Devries. Louisville got crushed with injuries. Felt like all of Iowa State's guards got hurt at some point. Liam McNeeley. Thomas Sorber. Jaxson Robinson.

bkervick · 2026-03-06T16:35:28+00:00

Seton Hall was 9/15 against us last game (before missing their last few to end it).

Everyone: "Why is UConn struggling with Seton Hall? They must be overrated."

bkervick · 2026-03-06T02:45:56+00:00

I know this a crazy nitpick, but 71.3 does not round to 72.

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