What a Crazy, Mixed-Up Final Four

[volinbham]

In FAU's favor - the NIT finals are 2 teams they beat in CUSA (UAB and UNT) and UNCC won the CBI tournament. CUSA was legit competition and FAU dominated the league.

I'm pulling for a FAU/Miami final with an FAU win. My bracket was Houston/Baylor so if FAU/Miami make it I had the right idea of two teams from the same basic area but got the area wrong.

 

[VolinMichigan]

The question I have is: what's the point of the tournament?

Is it to determine who the best team (national champion) of the year is?

Or is it to reward a team that gets hot?

Basketball is a game that suffers a ton of influence from outside factors compared to other sports (officiating variations between games, for example). A team can get hot despite sucking all year. If they win it all, are they really the best team? There's a reason basketball and baseball in other levels have multiple games per round to really draw out who the best team is.

I understand liking chaos and the Cinderella stories and all that, but it's a farce to call the tournament winner the "national champion" of a season.

I think in most years, you COULD call the winner the best team. This year is an aberration for sure, But teams are seeded with an entire regular season and conference tournament performance to go on. It’s not arbitrary. If teams sucked all year, then they aren’t getting into the tournament. Momentum plays a part but the top seeds SHOULD be able to go out and play at a high level every single game, that’s why they’re the top seeds.