Connect with us

Hoops

Despite Big 12 Victory, Oklahoma State Still Out, OU in on Most Brackets

Published

on

Oklahoma State beat OU for the second time this season on Wednesday evening in Kansas City, but that victory — Oklahoma State’s 19th of the season and 9th over a Big 12 team — didn’t change the Bracketology numbers for most people.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi both still have Oklahoma State on the outside looking in while they have OU as one of their last four teams in the NCAA Tournament. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel — a more accurate projector historically than either Lunardi or Palm — also has the Pokes out currently (with OU as a No. 8-seed!).

The Cowboys are a weird case. Even with an impressive five Q1 wins – including a season sweep of Kansas and Wednesday night’s victory over Oklahoma – they’re still stuck in the mid-80s in the RPI rankings. The lowest at-large team ever to get in was 2016 Syracuse at No. 71.

A non-conference schedule ranked in the 280s is doing them no favors. But Oklahoma State gets yet another crack at Kansas on Thursday and will be increasingly difficult to keep down with another win. [The Athletic]

As for Joey Brackets, after OSU took it to OU on Wednesday, he was backpedaling faster than Deion Sanders in his prime following his Westbrookian cupcake rant earlier in the week.

“It could be that they’ve already done enough,” said Lunardi of the Pokes on Wednesday after they pounded OU. “We’re going to study this. When I look at it Oklahoma State and Notre Dame have enormous opportunities to finish the deal. Oklahoma State’s probably saying, ‘how many times do we have to beat Kansas to prove ourselves?’ Maybe not anymore.”

He has some strong voices in his own organization riding pretty hard for the Pokes. Both Tom Crean and Scott Van Pelt are beating the drum for what might end up being one of the more talked-about bubble teams in recent memory.

I guess I just don’t see the case for having OU in and OSU out as both CBS Sports and ESPN currently have. Here are their resumes.

Oklahoma State

Quadrant 1 record: 5-10
Quadrant 2 record: 5-3
Quadrant 3-4 record: 9-0
Wins against RPI top 50: 7
Conference record: 9-10
Head to head: 2-1

Oklahoma

Quadrant 1 record: 6-8
Quadrant 2 record: 3-5
Quadrant 3-4 record: 7-0
Wins against RPI top 50: 6
Conference record: 8-11
Head to head: 1-2

Show me the part where OU is a better team or has a better resume than Oklahoma State. And if you’re propping up their RPI because they beat Ball State and Northwestern instead of Pittsburgh and Pepperdine then please excuse yourself from the conversation until football season.

“Obviously we have some losses, but they’re all to teams that are by everybody’s estimation going to be in the field,” said Mike Boynton on Wednesday. “Got a lot of high-quality wins on the road away from home, and we play in the toughest league in America and now we have nine wins against that competition. We’ll see.”

Both ESPN and CBS Sports also still have Louisville in over Oklahoma State (which is low-key hilarious). Let’s look at those resumes.

Oklahoma State

Quadrant 1 record: 5-10
Quadrant 2 record: 5-3
Quadrant 3-4 record: 9-0
Wins against RPI top 50: 7
Conference record: 9-10

Louisville

Quadrant 1 record: 3-10
Quadrant 2 record: 2-2
Quadrant 3-4 record: 15-0
Wins against RPI top 50: 0
Conference record: 10-9

Oklahoma State has seven wins over RPI top 50 teams. Louisville has zero. ZERO! And ESPN and CBS Sports both have them in and OSU out. Hat tip PFB Nate.

And with that, we’re done here. It’s not going to get any more absurd than a team that has beaten seven top 50 RPI teams (including No. 6 twice and two of those seven wins being road wins) losing out to a spot for a team that has beaten zero top 50 RPI teams. That’s the apex of silliness.

So here’s to OSU going 3-0 against KU in 2018 and having Jeffrey Carroll box a mannequin of Lunardi on national television on Sunday when the selection committee announces the Cowboys as a No. 10-seed in Kansas’ bracket with the Jayhawks as the No. 2 seed.

Most Read

Copyright © 2011- 2023 White Maple Media