Both are ups and downs of a team’s season. Many teams lose in an extended season to teams they shouldn’t lose too. We all know this. The Eagles in the NFL lost to the Falcons and the Commanders in the regular season but still won the after beating the Commanders in the playoffs and then the SB. The Eagles were the best team in football this year. Auburn lost 3 of its 4 last games but is the number 1 overall seed. The metrics show them as the strongest team. I can’t comment alot on Montana State. Off the top of my head I don’t know how they finished I’m sure you do. I don’t believe the committee’s metrics look at how close games are but they may. I know they look at efficiencies on offense and defense but I don’t believe they say “this is a close game and it shouldn’t be”. All players in D1 basketball are good - even on teams with poor season record results. If a team doesn’t take a team seriously or look past them they could get beat or the game could be close. Penn State is a strong team and played very strong in the Big Ten season losing many games at the very end. That was a painful loss for Wisconsin as it dropped them out of a double bye and forced them to play 4 days in a row which I believe cost them the Big Ten Tourney Championship as I believe they were tired. Penn State starts 3 players who are 5 Star recruits. They are not a pushover. There is not a team in the Country, that views that team as weak. As an example they lost in the last few seconds to Oregon by one point and you know how the Oregon vs Montana game turned out. Would you have viewed the Montana vs Oregon game differently if Montana lost by 1 point? I would have! Was I disappointed in Wisconsin losing to Penn State - Yup! Was I disappointed that Montana got destroyed by Oregon - Yup! But those games are not defining games to either Wisconsin or Montana’s seasons. They made them stronger.
I’m going to move on from our conversation here. I’m anxious to watch Montana vs Wisconsin and I hope it is a good game. Both teams had great seasons no matter how it turns out. As I mentioned in my original post I shared what I saw of Wisconsin this year to those here who probably didn’t watch them much. They are a very strong team. ESPN in the article this morning had them as a team with a final 4 ceiling. I believe that is accurate. I know of no team that will intimdate them and I don’t believe there is any team that wants to play them. Are they as good as the 2015 - No. Are they better than the team that played Montana in 2012 - Yes, the current team is better. The only reason I initially replied was after a big laugh I had after reading posts here that Wisconsin was a “good draw” for Montana as a 3 seed. To me that was a comical comment.
We’ll see on Thursday how it all turns out. Enjoy the tournament! I’m going back to lurking and not commenting.
