Wednesday, February 28, 2001
What if it's XU or UC for final bid?
The Cincinnati Enquirer
OK, you're on the NCAA selection committee and you have one at-large slot left and two schools on the board: Cincinnati and Xavier. Who do you pick?
Xavier has obvious advantages:
• It won head to head (69-67 on Dec. 14)
• XU is 3-0 against common opponents Toledo, Marquette and Dayton; UC is 1-3 against those teams.
• XU has beaten three Top 50 RPI teams: St.Joe's, UC and Temple. UC has beaten two: Wake Forest (27 RPI) and Alabama (44).
But wait ...
“If there isn't something that stands out about Cincinnati (over XU), then the head-to-head game would probably be a tiebreaker,” said Jerry Palm, who runs collegerpi.com. “But if Cincinnati could get a league (regular-season) championship, or share it, that would be good. The committee does like league champions, which Xavier can't be.”
| |
UC |
XU |
Advantage |
| Records |
19-8 |
21-5 |
XU |
| AP poll |
31 |
25 |
XU |
| USAT poll |
31 |
28 |
XU |
| RPI |
36 |
34 |
XU |
| Last 10 |
7-3 |
8-2 |
XU |
| vs. Top 25 |
3-1 |
1-1 |
UC |
| Strength of schedule |
59 |
104 |
UC |
| Head-to-head |
0-1 |
1-0 |
XU |
Best wins
(RPI) |
Alabama (44)
Wake Forest (27)
|
UC (36)
St. Joseph's (22)
Temple (48) |
XU |
| vs. Top 50 RPI |
2-2 |
3-2 |
XU |
| vs. Top 100 RPI |
9-6 |
8-4 |
XU |
UC, XU on 'high side' of bubble
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What if it's XU or UC for final bid?