What’s Trending: Bracket Preview
Posted by Matt Eisenberg on February 12th, 2018What’s Trending is a column examining the week that was in college basketball social media. Matthew Eisenberg (@matteise) is your weekly host.
With less than 30 days to go until Selection Sunday, we were given an early look at what the top 16 NCAA Tournament seeds would look like as of now…
#MarchMadness Top 16 Seeds!
1. Virginia
2. Villanova
3. Xavier
4. Purdue
5. Auburn
6. Kansas
7. Duke
8. Cincinnati
9. Clemson
10. Texas Tech
11. Michigan State
12. North Carolina
13. Tennessee
14. Ohio State
15. Arizona
16. Oklahoma#BracketPreview (as of today) pic.twitter.com/qn967GDjvY— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) February 11, 2018
While the bracket preview gives us a sneak-peek look inside the process, Jay Bilas was quick to express his views that the bracket preview only gives us an early look into an incredibly flawed system…
The Committee’s quadrant system is just more shaky data to organize information for less discerning minds. All of the quad data is based upon RPI. Garbage in, garbage out.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) February 11, 2018
A few of the decisions in the bracket preview Top 16 seeds are laughable. I hope this was just to create controversy and discussion. Otherwise, the Committee is wasting its time.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) February 11, 2018
After starting Big East play 0-11, St. John’s notched its first conference win over #1 Villanova last week. Darren Rovell took to Twitter to post the picture of the last time St. John’s beat a top-ranked team.
January 26, 1985: Last time St. John’s beat a #1 team, current head coach Chris Mullin stole the ball was fouled and hit a free throw. St. John’s beat Patrick Ewing & Georgetown by 1. pic.twitter.com/Gvk0yoofon
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 8, 2018
Texas guard Andrew Jones getting shots up is a sight we can all root for…
Texas guard Andrew Jones is not letting leukemia keep him from getting up some shots. pic.twitter.com/3Wr26bkkAT
— ESPN (@espn) February 8, 2018
In similar fashion, this look inside the Purdue locker room gave us all a glimpse into the overwhelming power our favorite players can have. Well done Boilers!
https://twitter.com/BoilerBall/status/961602747643543552
Unfortunately for their fans, the good karma off the court did not extend back on to the court last week. First came this wild endgame sequence against Ohio State…
No. 14 @OhioStateHoops has gone into Mackey and snapped No. 3 Purdue's D-I leading 19-game winning streak!
And the B1G's leading scorer, @KBD_33, converted the winning putback to help seal it. The Ohio State Buckeyes are now in first place in the Big Ten: pic.twitter.com/S25JRNhovk
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 8, 2018
After the game, Ohio State’s Chris Holtmann gave this fantastic interview to Andy Katz…
https://twitter.com/OhioStateOnBTN/status/961450319505801216
And just days later, it was Michigan State‘s Miles Bridges with ice water in his veins…
That's @MilesBridges01, from deep, to give @MSU_Basketball the late lead. pic.twitter.com/81MjvcwYZd
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 10, 2018
Officiating has managed to find a way into the discussion all across the country. The decision to give Louisiana Tech‘s Jacobi Boykins a second technical foul was a head-scratching decision here…
JACOBI BOYKINS WITH NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE TURNING DEFENSE INTO OFFENSE AND A….
technical foul? @LATechHoops' Boykins is ejected after receiving his second technical foul of the night. Jason Capel does NOT agree. Now on @beINSPORTSUSA pic.twitter.com/Qygq4yjFIc
— beIN COLLEGE SPORTS (@beINCOLLEGE) February 9, 2018
Ron Hunter will forever be remembered for falling off his stool in the NCAA Tournament a few years ago, but he should also be remembered what he did near the end of Georgia State‘s recent game against Louisiana.
MUST SEE: Georgia State Head Coach Ron Hunter shuts down his own fans who are heckling the opposing coach, then DROPS THE MIC!! @FOX5Sports @FOXSports pic.twitter.com/acKfPp6d7p
— Cody Chaffins (@Cody_Fox5) February 9, 2018
A week after beating Arizona at the buzzer, Washington‘s fortune wasn’t as positive as Oregon State’s Stevie Thompson did not want to see a third overtime…
DAGGER pic.twitter.com/h9Atw42Hak
— ESPN (@espn) February 11, 2018
