#1 Overall Seed

[KansasCityCats]

Is Arizona deserving of the #1 overall seed today?  ESPN obviously argues that Dook is the clear-cut winner but I wanted to take a realistic look at the side-by-side comparison:

NET Ranking: Dook (1) / Arizona (3)
VS Quad 1: Dook (16-2) / Arizona (15-2)
VS NET Top-10: Dook (2-0) / Arizona (6-0)
VS NET Top-25: Dook (11-1) / Arizona (10-2)

I don't understand the SOS metrics.  Both schools are consistently in the Top-5.  Sites like KenPom have Dook at #1, yet there are only 3 ACC teams in the Top-25.  Meanwhile, there are 6 Big-12 schools.  The competition in the ACC is garbage this season.  Cal/Stanford finished 9-9, and would have unquestionably finished at the bottom of the Big-12...

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other

Beating UCF, sneaking past Iowa State and holding off Houston is quite an accomplishment.  Sleepwalking past Florida State, beating Clemson and last minute-heroics against Virginia isn't comparable.  The conference tournaments will hopefully influence the committee, yet I'm not optimistic because Arizona hasn't held the #1 spot in the AP Poll for the past 5 weeks. 

NOTE: Caleb Foster is DONE for the season and Ngongba is questionable, after missing the ACC Tourney.  Meanwhile, Arizona's only two losses were WITHOUT Aristode and Peat (except the first few minutes of the KU game).

Thoughts?  We're obviously biased here...

[Cactus🌵Cat]

Arizona hasn't advanced past the Elite 8  as a 1-seed since 1988, 37 years.

[CatInFL]

I too am confused by the SOS metrics. I think the groupings they consider may be too large. For instance, quad goes as low as the 75th ranked team. A large part of what makes our success so impressive is how many games we won against top 7 opponents.  I haven't looked, but I doubt many other schools played as many as we won. I think we're the best team in country, but there's not much difference between us and Duke. I don't think being "the top overall seed" is important. I think the committee did a fine job with seeding the top lines. They could have flipped us and Duke, they could have flipped Houston and Florida and I'd have felt it was an equally good job.

[SnowDen]

Much ado about nothing. Let dook have all the pre-tourney accolades and press. I'll take the post-tourney celebration and hardware.

BearDown