Brackets and Rankings: 2024-2025

[Xville]

I think we are all discounting the fact that lunardi is really bad at his job.

Good at branding himself, bad at actual prognosticating.

[paulxu]

I was so spoiled as we seemed to always got to the NCAA's.
In the past 6 years we've been once.

I'd be very happy to return to the old ways.

[GoMuskies]

I think we are all discounting the fact that lunardi is really bad at his job.

Good at branding himself, bad at actual prognosticating.

And with the transfer portal that job is basically impossible now anyway. Just throw darts at a board to pick 3-11 seeds.

[xubrew]

I think we are all discounting the fact that lunardi is really bad at his job.

Good at branding himself, bad at actual prognosticating.

I both know and like Joe Lunardi. He doesn't really brand himself. He just sort of fell backwards into it. He used to be the editor of the Blue Ribboin, and they put out a print edition of it for the NCAA Tournament that had to be pressed and ready to go the night of the selection show. So, he sort of taught himself to guess who was getting in in order to cut down on the amount of work they needed to do and have it all done by that night.

They advertised the book on ESPN, and the ad included a bracket he had made. It got so much attention that ESPN asked him to start doing it for them. And, the rest is history. He's actually the first one to tell you he's really just guessing. It was ESPN that kind of made it into what it is. I really like what he does. Having a bracket out every week is something that anyone can look at and get a quick snapshot of how the season is going, and I think that adds to peoples' enjoyment of the sport. He might not get the best "score" when it comes to selections and seedings, but he's probably got the most people following him, so...good for him! He also knows the actual game more than what he gets credit for. He'd be a pretty decent scout. He knows it better than most in the media. I sometimes wish they'd use him more for analysis instead of just having him guess brackets.

[Xville]

I'm not surprised at all by this. If I look at this team in isolation, it could be the deepest most experienced XU team ever. Even our very best teams were usually only 7 deep, with a dropoff once the starters came out or with huys having to play a bit out of position. But next years team is loaded, with the possible reality that previous starters might not be playing AT ALL.

In a "normal" year, this would be a preseason top 10, if not top 5 team. But there is nothing normal about what happened during the portal season. As predicted, the talent across the D1 landscape has continued to migrate UP the ranks and into a smaller set of the "haves." I know we think we had a "haul" when it comes to new portal players, and we certainly did get ALOT (7) of them, but honestly they were mostly ranked in in the 100-200 range. So you literally have about 190 other guys who are arguably of the same caliber or better that also improved some other teams.

Add in the fact that this is the last year for 5th year COVID guys and I think you will see the MOST LOADED rosters ever in college basketball, and likely never to be matched. I think the quality of basketball will be outstanding and we will actually see a noticeable drop off next year when the 5th year and 4th year guys step away, which will lead to an abnormally high number of freshmen coming in to fill the rosters. I expect a huge drop off in the 25-26 season and then a gradual return to "normal" rosters.

In any case, i do think this XU team is more like a 4-6 seed and therefore us currently overlooked. but this season will be epic, and a dogfight.

As an aside, and I've mentioned it before, but I think its very possible that XU could roll out the MOST EXPERIENCED college basketball team EVER next year. In terms of games played, our roster has played a combined like almost 1000 games or something crazy like that. With the 5th year players going away, it will never be possible to assemble a roster like this again. Most experienced team ever....forever?

I think Lunardi is simpler than what you describe here. If you look at the schools ahead of X, they are either "blue blood programs" or teams that have had quite a bit of recent success. That's why Lunardi has them preseason ranked ahead of Xavier....that and Xavier has for the most part been terrible since Mack left, so they aren't getting the benefit of the doubt.

If Lunardi looks objectively at rosters (which by some of his rankings, I can about guarantee he doesn't do), X would easily be in the top 5 seeds. It's just frankly laziness.

[profson]

I don’t know how you can rank this team now. Every one of the bigs has significant questions surrounding them. If those break the right way there is promise, but if not …

[XUGRAD80]

I don’t know how you can rank this team now. Every one of the bigs has significant questions surrounding them. If those break the right way there is promise, but if not …

And the same can be said for almost every other squad. That is why preseason rankings and even most in season predictions aren’t worth the paper they are written on or the time that it takes to read them. No reason to get excited over them one way or the other.

[paulxu]

More worthless paper. At least we're rising.
So strange to not have Villanova in the mix.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...ld-predictions

[GoMuskies]

Kelsey getting Louisville into the Tournament in his first year would be big news.

[X-band '01]

More worthless paper. At least we're rising.
So strange to not have Villanova in the mix.

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...ld-predictions

This is really going to be a make-or-break year for Kyle Neptune. I'm not bullish on Nova at all this upcoming year.