Has he been unbanned from this thread yet?

Yeah he was being way too negative but he is a KU fan. I'd hate to have this thread turn into a bunch of homers like me.

He demands others be banned.

Maybe if he apologizes for that, he can be re-considered

Xavier gets bounced before the sweet 16 2 of the last 3 years.

Michigan State gets bounced before the sweet 16 3 straight years.

Virginia gets bounced before the sweet 16 3 of the last 5 years.

yet, we are the team who always chokes?

We are held to higher standards. We are compared to Duke, Carolina, and Kentucky. They've all been to several Final Fours or won multiple titles (or at least been to multiple title games) since we were last made it as far as we "should." That's why I think we get the choker label even though all three of those mentioned schools have missed the tourney since the last time we did.

I don't think what he's doing is bad. He's highlighting the concerns in each matchup which I think is fair game. I might also use KenPom to paint the picture from the other angle as well though.

Ridiculous really at even the notion. KCC is a stat driven mind. Does't mean he doesn't want them to win.

Kansas has the misfortune of being on the complete wrong side of the bracket and having the toughest road remaining of any of the top teams. For example, they've only got a 22% chance to make the FF according to KenPom (far below the 40-50% of teams like Villanova/Duke/Gonzaga) while KState (who, as everyone knows, is a bad team with an even worse coach) is at 16%. Must be nice to have Kentucky/Loyola/Nevada as opponents next weekend rather than Clemson and Duke. Of course, an "easier" road isn't necessarily a guarantee either as we've learned over the years...

These "stats" are widely available to anyone who wants to see them. Merely regurgitating them back to us isn't really adding any value.

To an extent, sure... except it's in a clickbait way.

It's one thing to state what kenpom says and look at matchup and strengths/weakness, etc.. that stuff can be pretty interesting. It's another to repeatedly say KU is on upset alert over Penn while overstating their strength without looking at anything else, then do the same for Seton Hall and Clemson, etc.... especially when it's pretty freakin' obvious what actually happens in a single elimination tournament doesn't really have to do with what kenpom says (except in a nice self-fulfilling way... oh KU had a 53% chance to win and they did. Kenpom!).

So much of it is ridiculously overblown and completely lacking any sort of in depth look at the numbers, and some of it has been flat wrong (KU isn't the even the weakest 1 this season, much less the past several years, etc.), which is why so many people have been laughing at all of it... all while two other 1 seeds, two 2s, two 3s, etc; have been knocked out.

Oh, if there was a stat for "Thread Value Added" or TVA, I don't think there's any doubt that I would be far ahead of you in that metric.

I cannot compete with you on the endless # of "soft" references.


For that metric, you're a volume shooter.

Then again on the + side, if we get there, we have a better chance to win the whole thing, correct?

Well, a lot of this is based off Kansas being 9th in kenpom, so even Gonzaga and Michigan on the other side will set off kenpom's alarms. The reason Kansas supposedly had the lower chance of beating Seton Hall than other 1s had in the 2nd round wasn't because Seton Hall was ranked any higher, it was because Kansas was ranked lower than the other 1s except for Xavier.

Looking at opponents remaining, it's Villanova's road that's tougher, with the better opponent in the SS, only one spot worse than Kansas' opponent in the EE, and no chance at a relative cupcake.

But, Kansas is 9th compared Villanova being #1.... it's false to say Kansas has the toughest road remaining, even if their chances of going to the Final Four are lower because they aren't as good as Villanova.

Of course, the other side of the bracket is wrecked, but there are still a couple top 10 kenpom teams in there.

Villanova (1) vs 11th, 4th/13th
Kansas (9) vs 14th, 3rd/44th
Kentucky (16) vs 39th, 36th/23rd
Gonzaga (7) vs 30th, 10th/25th

Of course, actual analysis isn't as sexy as saying 22% and easily the toughest road, I guess.

Unsurprisingly you have not accounted for the fact that 3rd ranked Duke is far superior to 4th ranked Purdue. Their +29.65 efficiency margin is a huge difference from Purdue's 26.81, which is what really makes KU's road the toughest of any remaining team. There are only 2 truly elite teams left in this competition (Villanova and Duke) and they are both directly in this team's path. If KU does make the final, it will be quite the feat.

It would be a nice droppoff from playing Duke/Villanova.