VBALL - "BRACKET BREAKDOWN INSTANT REACTION"
- Thread starter HOF Coach
- Start date
Good one coach....Haley is worth the listen.....his admonishment to Pitt.....don't take USC for granted is good advice.
I feel like we have plenty of California players who will enjoy the opportunity to stick it to USC on the east coast.
In a few interviews I have seen with Fisher, he seems very detail-oriented when it comes to preparation, focus, and scripting out the week. Doesn't mean USC can't play us tough - they have some solid wins this year - but if it is tight, I don't think it will be because Pitt overlooked them.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
I feel like there will be some notable upsets this year. Also think K-State or even NC State has an argument that they should have been in over someone like Minnesota. B1G bias, I guess.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Putting Pitt and Louisville in the same is insane. Giving the SEC so many slots is insane.
Texas vs Stanford and Pitt vs Louisville becomes must-see TV BEFORE the Final Four. That's smart programming for a sport looking to grow its audience.
In his press conference Coach Fisher said he was surprised NC State didn't get in. Also said committee did a good job.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
K-State deserved in over NC State based on schedule. I think NC State gets hurt for a bad loss or two.
If we're going to nitpick, I would have preferred Purdue over Kentucky for a 2 seed. Kentucky gets way too much credit for "good losses".
Sorry for a shameless self plug here but I recorded a podcast episode with Kayla Lund about the tourney, so if you want more Pitt VB content in your life I'd love if everyone checked it out/let me know if they liked the show
I don't think that's the case. I mean you could make the case that Pitt should have been the 3rd overall seed (in fact I would as well). But Louisville is, I think, pretty clearly the best of the two seeds. And if you are seeding a bracket correctly, in the Elite Eight the best two seed should be playing the lowest one seed.
I think once they made us the 4th overall seed the only way we were missing Louisville was if they decided they didn't want two teams from the same conference as the top two seeds in the same regional. And that isn't one of the seeding principles for volleyball.
Basketball, for example, explicitly has that rule. The top three teams from a conference are supposed to be put into three different regions. But volleyball does not have that rule. So we got what we probably should have expected.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
That was in response to the notion that Texas somehow shouldn't have to play in the same bracket as Stanford. It's not like they're in the same conference but this arrangement sort of guarantees we can't have a repeat of last year when, (GASP!) two ACC teams made the final four.
Sure, but what I am saying is that they gave that no thought what so ever. There are conference teams that are going to be meeting as early as the 3rd round. If Wisconsin and Penn State win their next games, they play in round 3. Missouri and Florida could play in the 3rd round (they aren't going to, but they could). You could have a situation where in the second round a Big 12 team plays an SEC team for the right to play the winner of a Big 12 team versus an SEC team in the 3rd round. Stanford and Arizona State could play in the 3rd. If USC upsets us they could be playing Washington State in the 3rd round.
It's pretty obvious that other than the first weekend they didn't take conferences into account at all. Other sports do, some to a greater extent than others. In volleyball there are other things that they have decided are more important.
Agreed, the committee made it pretty clear that the top 16 teams were going to be seeded by ranking and it didn't matter who that paired up within their regions. So I don't think there's any conspiracy to only have one ACC team in the final 4. You could argue Pitt deserved the 3 over Wisconsin but Louisville is pretty clearly the 5th best team
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Pitt vs Louisville would be more like if they put Wisconsin in the same bracket as Nebraska. None of those other comparisons is even close. Honestly, I do think Pitt got the fourth seed to keep the top two B1G teams from meeting until the final.
But your comparison is the one that is actually way off the mark, because literally no one thinks that Wisconsin should be the lowest number two seed.
Heck, there is almost no one who doesn't agree that Wisconsin should be a one seed, let alone the worst of the twos.
I do agree, and said so before the bracket came out, that Wisconsin was going to get the overall three and we were going to get the four so that Wisconsin and Nebraska wouldn't play until the championship game. That's the game that the NCAA wants.
Let's hope we screw that up for them.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Not saying Wisconsin should be a two seed. It was merely a comparison.
