It's Completely Asinine That Porter Moser And Loyola Chicago Fans Are Screaming How Underseeded They Are In The NCAA Tournament

I can't believe we're doing this. Actually, I can because it's March and this shit always happens. Loyola was an 8 seed. Perfectly fine. People are freaking out because they are top-10 in NET and KenPom and think they should be seeded higher. That's fair, except for the fact the committee uses way more than just NET and KenPom for rankings. Remember, we still don't know truly how the NET is built. If that was the only two things the committee used, sure, they have a case. 

But let's actually dive into Loyola's resume here. They are 3-3 in games that mattered and 1 one of the wins over Drake came without its two best players. They lost to Richmond, Wisconsin and Drake. Shit, if we want to just use NET and KenPom, we should be screaming about Wisconsin. They average out as the 19th best team in the country on metrics, should be a 5 seed. They are a 9. Or does that not count because we watched them play and realize they shouldn't be a 5 seed? Wisconsin's best win is Loyola! This is all insane. In fact the NET and KenPom justifies Loyola as an 8 seed. If you just looked at wins/losses, this isn't an 8-seed. The metrics helped them. 

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Here's another key, all quad 1 and quad 2 games aren't the same. This is Loyola's KenPom sheet: 

Oh and from another metrics guy - Haslemetrics

I won't bring up scheduling because of how weird this year was. But they lost the games that mattered they scheduled. They lost to Richmond and Wisconsin. The win over North Texas looks way better after North Texas won 4 games in 4 days to win the C-USA Tournament, but remember they were a 4 seed from the west division in C-USA. Loyola proved it can beat the hell out of inferior opponents which inflates the metrics. Yes, it matters. Yes, that's what a team should do like Loyola in the MVC. You can argue they aren't even the team in their opening round game with the biggest gripe of seed! Georgia Tech ended up a 9 seed. If we're going to punish them for the 2 losses to start the year, we can surely say the same about Loyola right?

 Or does that not matter because we fall in love with mid-majors and scream how they get a raw deal. I'll say teams like Loyola typically get a raw deal in scheduling. Teams tend to avoid scheduling a good mid-major because it can be a quad 2 or even potentially quad 3 loss at the end of the year. But in terms of seeding, Loyola is an 8 seed. Want to make them a 7? Who are you dropping? Clemson, I'll listen. But are we sure Loyola is even the 8 seed who gets first dibs instead of LSU? 

But I guess it's March. Make up any narrative you want to hype your team up. Pretty soon every team in the Round of 32 besides the 1 seeds will have an argument they were underseeded.