March Madness metrics unsure of these 9 teams

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Gonzaga, Memphis and Oregon are among the teams that could challenge the NCAA Tournament selection committee this year. Here’s why:

Which NCAA men’s teams to watch on the bubble before March Madness

USAT’s Jordan Mendoza gives his teams to keep an eye on for ‘bubble watch’ as March Madness selection Sunday approaches.

Sports Pulse

The NCAA Tournament selection committee uses a combination of predictive and results-based metrics to determine at-large bids and seeding.Predictive metrics such as NET, KenPom, BPI, and Torvik rankings focus on a team’s efficiency and strength of schedule.Results-based metrics like KPI, SOR, and Wins Above Bubble consider a team’s actual wins and losses.Teams like Gonzaga, Memphis, VCU, and Oregon present intriguing cases due to the variance in their predictive and results-based metrics used for March Madness.

There’s always going to be somebody unhappy with the March Madness selection process. It’s the nature of the beast with 364 Division-I men’s basketball programs playing only up to 31 regular-season games with just 68 NCAA Tournament berths available. Perceived snubs are inevitable and seeding that makes people shrug is almost as likely, no matter how many advanced metrics the NCAA employs to decipher between teams.

But the seven metrics listed this year on team sheets for the NCAA Tournament selection committee are more than ever before, with each ranking or rating separated into two distinct categories ‒ predictive metrics and results-based metrics. The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), KenPom, ESPN’s BPI and the Torvik rankings are considered predictive rankings that measure how good a team is based on its offensive and defensive efficiency, adjusted for opponent strength and location. The KPI, ESPN’s Strength of Record (SOR) and Wins Above Bubble (WAB) are results-based rankings that judge how hard it was for a team to attain its resume.

For many teams, the two types of ratings largely converge by the end of the season. For others, however, there…

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Source link : https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2025/03/15/march-madness-bracketology-gonzaga-memphis-oregon-net-kenpom/82253327007/

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Publish date : 2025-03-15 10:02:00

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