Thursday, March 1, 2007

2006 NCAA Tourney Breakdown

Starting today, I'll be breaking down one NCAA tournament per day. I'll examine the Big Ten's invitees, the field as a whole, and what effect the mid-majors had on the field. My aim is that you'll use this avalanche of information to determine if there's any precedent to the talk that Iowa should be in. Or I suppose you could use it however you'd like.

2006

The bracket seed tables are heisted from the 2006 tourney Wikipedia page for purposes of saving me the task of typing every team's name.

Atlanta
Seed School Conference Record Berth Type
#1 Duke ACC 30-3 Tournament Champion
#2 Texas Big 12 27-6 At-Large Bid
#3 Iowa Big Ten 25-8 Tournament Champion
#4 LSU SEC 23-8 At-Large Bid
#5 Syracuse Big East 23-11 Tournament Champion
#6 West Virginia Big East 20-10 At-Large Bid
#7 California Pac-10 20-10 At-Large Bid
#8 George Washington A-10 26-2 At-Large Bid
#9 UNC-Wilmington CAA 25-7 Tournament Champion
#10 NC State ACC 21-9 At-Large Bid
#11 Southern Illinois MVC 22-10 Tournament Champion
#12 Texas A&M Big 12 21-8 At-Large Bid
#13 Iona MAAC 23-7 Tournament Champion
#14 Northwestern State Southland 25-7 Tournament Champion
#15 Penn Ivy League 20-8 Regular Season Champion
#16 Southern SWAC 19-12 Tournament Champion
Oakland
Seed School Conference Record Berth Type
#1 Memphis C-USA 30-3 Tournament Champion
#2 UCLA Pac-10 27-6 Tournament Champion
#3 Gonzaga WCC 27-3 Tournament Champion
#4 Kansas Big 12 25-7 Tournament Champion
#5 Pittsburgh Big East 24-7 At-Large Bid
#6 Indiana Big Ten 18-11 At-Large Bid
#7 Marquette Big East 20-10 At-Large Bid
#8 Arkansas SEC 22-9 At-Large Bid
#9 Bucknell Patriot 26-4 Tournament Champion
#10 Alabama SEC 17-12 At-Large Bid
#11 San Diego State MWC 24-8 Tournament Champion
#12 Kent State MAC 25-8 Tournament Champion
#13 Bradley MVC 20-10 At-Large Bid
#14 Xavier A-10 21-10 Tournament Champion
#15 Belmont Atlantic Sun 20-10 Tournament Champion
#16 Oral Roberts Mid-Continent 21-11 Tournament Champion
Washington, D.C.
Seed School Conference Record Berth Type
#1 Connecticut Big East 27-3 At-Large Bid
#2 Tennessee SEC 21-7 At-Large Bid
#3 North Carolina ACC 23-8 At-Large Bid
#4 Illinois Big Ten 25-6 At-Large Bid
#5 Washington Pac-10 24-6 At-Large Bid
#6 Michigan State Big Ten 22-11 At-Large Bid
#7 Wichita State MVC 24-8 At-Large Bid
#8 Kentucky SEC 21-12 At-Large Bid
#9 UAB C-USA 24-6 At-Large Bid
#10 Seton Hall Big East 18-11 At-Large Bid
#11 George Mason CAA 25-7 At-Large Bid
#12 Utah State WAC 23-8 At-Large Bid
#13 Air Force Mtn. West 24-6 At-Large Bid
#14 Murray State OVC 24-6 Tournament Champion
#15 Winthrop Big South 23-7 Tournament Champion
#16 Albany Am. East 21-10 Tournament Champion
Minneapolis
Seed School Conference Record Berth Type
#1 Villanova Big East 25-4 At-Large Bid
#2 Ohio State Big Ten 25-5 At-Large Bid
#3 Florida SEC 27-6 Tournament Champion
#4 Boston College ACC 26-7 At-Large Bid
#5 Nevada WAC 27-5 Tournament Champion
#6 Oklahoma Big 12 20-8 At-Large Bid
#7 Georgetown Big East 21-9 At-Large Bid
#8 Arizona Pac-10 19-12 At-Large Bid
#9 Wisconsin Big Ten 19-11 At-Large Bid
#10 Northern Iowa MVC 23-9 At-Large Bid
#11 Milwaukee Horizon 21-8 Tournament Champion
#12 Montana Big Sky 23-6 Tournament Champion
#13 Pacific Big West 24-7 Tournament Champion
#14 South Alabama Sun Belt 24-6 Tournament Champion
#15 Davidson Southern 18-10 Tournament Champion
Play-in Monmouth NEC 18-14 Tournament Champion
Play-in Hampton MEAC 16-15 Tournament Champion

Last teams in: Bradley, Air Force (13 seeds)
Worst RPI's in: California (#57), Seton Hall (#58)
Best RPI's left out: Missouri State (#21), Hofstra (#30)

Conference RPI standings (number of bids received)
1. Big Ten (6)
2. Big East (8)
3. ACC (4)
4. SEC (6)
5. Big XII (4)
6. MVC (4)
7. Pac-10 (4)
8. Mountain West (2)
9. WAC (2)
10. Colonial (2)

TEAM MOST LIKE IOWA:
This job was a lot harder before the loss to Penn State. I was giving Iowa the benefit of the doubt and penciling them in for 9/10 conference wins, but still with an RPI on the wrong side of 70. That now looks irrelevant, as Iowa now can best hope for a 9-7 conference record that could be as low as 7th in the conference. Nonetheless, here's Iowa's peer (the way it looks now) in the 2006 tourney pool:

PAC-10:
5. Stanford (15-13, 11-7) (RPI: 86)

Stanford, like Iowa, had an absolutely disastrous non-conference fling, getting smoked by a subpar UC-Irvine team and a worse UC-Davis, who was flirting with going sub-300 in the RPI. Nonetheless, they persevered in the Pac-10, finishing 11-7 with wins against Washington and California. The Cardinal, of course, did not make the tournament. They did make the NIT, where they lost in the 2nd round to top NCAA snub Missouri State, 76-67. So there's that for Iowa to look forward to.

I'll be going all the way back to 1999, as that's as far back as the good data go for breaking down a tournament field. Stay tuned!

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