It’s that time of year again when all the important people who write about college basketball are debating, who’s in, who’s out, who’s sitting on the wrong side of the bubble and of course, who’s going to be a No 1 seed.
The last one really is pointless, because in the grand scheme of things, being a number one seed is meaningless.
Now this year you could make a slight argument that being the fourth No 1 seed is important. It’s been clear for sometime now that three teams clearly stand out, Kansas, Kentucky and Syracuse. They could each lose in the first round of their respected conference tournaments and they’d still be a top seed.
By getting that fourth number one seed you would avoid facing one of the big three in the regional. Yet in Duke’s case, I’m still saying, who cares if they get the top seed?
The reason is, if Duke fails to get the No 1 seed (mostly likely out west), they would still end up being the top No 2 seed. The committee snakes the teams, so if the 4th best team in their eyes gets the final No 1 seed, the 5th best team would get the No 2 seed in the exact same conference.
Right now, if Duke wins the ACC Tournament, they get the No 1 seed. If they lost the ACC tournament, let’s say in the finals or semi-finals, then that opens the door for either Ohio State or Purdue. If either wins the Big Ten Tournament, they could sneak pass Duke if the Devils lost again.
Obviously I left out Kansas State, but sorry, that home loss to Iowa State is going to hurt and besides, they’re not going to win the Big-12 conference. In fact, I’ll put money down that says they lose before the conference finals.
In a perfect world, Duke would grab the No 1 seed and the either Purdue or New Mexico would grab the No 2 seed. I would rather avoid Ohio State, who’s looking good right now. The loss of Robby Hummell makes Purdue an inferior team to Duke, where before, not so much.
