Bracketology is the process of predicting the field of college basketball participants in the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, named as such because it is commonly used to fill in tournament brackets for the postseason. It incorporates some method of predicting the metrics the NCAA Selection Committee will use in order to determine at-large teams to complete the field of 68 teams, and, to seed the field by ranking all teams from first through sixty-eighth. Bracketology also encompasses the process of predicting the winners of each of the brackets. In recent years the concept of bracketology has been applied to areas other than basketball.
A sports rating system is a system that analyzes the results of sports competitions to provide ratings for each team or player. Common systems include polls of expert voters, crowdsourcing non-expert voters, betting markets, and computer systems. Ratings, or power ratings, are numerical representations of competitive strength, often directly comparable so that the game outcome between any two teams can be predicted. Rankings, or power rankings, can be directly provided, or can be derived by sorting each team's ratings and assigning an ordinal rank to each team, so that the highest rated team earns the #1 rank. Rating systems provide an alternative to traditional sports standings which are based on win–loss–tie ratios.
Travis Ford is an American former college basketball coach who was most recently the head coach of the Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball team. He was also previously the head coach at Campbellsville University, Eastern Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma State. Prior to that, he played at the University of Missouri and the University of Kentucky.
Carl Bialik is an American journalist and YouGov America's vice president of data science and U.S. politics editor. Earlier, Bialik was known for his work for The Wall Street Journal. In 2013, Bialik was hired by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com. In 2017 he was named data science editor of Yelp, working on Yelpblog.
The Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball team is the intercollegiate men's basketball program representing Saint Louis University. They compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The head coaching position is currently filled by Josh Schertz. Chaifetz Arena is home to the Billikens. The Billikens have reached the championship game of the NIT tournament four times and have won it once (1948). They have appeared in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament ten times, most recently in 2019.
Tim Ryan is a Canadian retired sportscaster who worked for NBC, CBS, Fox, and ESPN in the United States. He was the play-by-play announcer for the NHL on NBC from 1972 to 1975, called over three hundred championship boxing matches, and was a host and play-by-play announcer for Tennis on CBS.
The Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament is the conference championship tournament in men's basketball for the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). Even though the WAC was founded in 1962, the annual tournament has only been held since 1984.
The Army Black Knights men's basketball team represents the United States Military Academy in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball. Army currently competes as a member of the Patriot League and plays its home games at Christl Arena in West Point, New York.
The 2005 Mid-Continent Conference men's basketball tournament took place between Saturday, March 5, 2006 and Tuesday, March 8, 2006 at the John Q. Hammons Arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The 2009–10 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 9, 2009, and ended with the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on April 5, 2010, on the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The opening round occurred on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, followed by first and second rounds on Thursday through Sunday, March 18–21, 2010. Regional games were played on Thursday through Sunday, March 25–28, 2010, with the Final Four played on Saturday and Monday, April 3 and 5, 2010.
The 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010, with the preliminary games of the 2010 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, and ended with the 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on April 4, 2011, at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The tournament's first-round games occurred March 15–16, 2011, in Dayton, followed by second and third rounds on Thursday through Sunday, March 17–20. Regional games were March 24–27, with the Final Four played April 2 and 4.
Ken Pomeroy is the creator of the college basketball website and statistical archive KenPom. His website includes his College Basketball Ratings, statistics for every NCAA men's Division I basketball team, with archives dating back to the 2002 season, as well as a blog about current college basketball. His work on tempo-based basketball statistics is compared by many to the work of Bill James in baseball. As of the spring of 2012, Pomeroy is also an instructor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah.
The 2011–12 Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team represented Vanderbilt University during the 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Commodores, members of the Southeastern Conference, were coached by Kevin Stallings, and celebrated their 60th season in their current home arena, Memorial Gymnasium. After a 21–10 regular season that fell short of lofty preseason expectations, the Commodores captured their first SEC Tournament Championship in 61 seasons on March 11, 2012, by defeating Georgia, Ole Miss, and top-ranked Kentucky in consecutive days. In the 2012 NCAA tournament they defeated Harvard in the second round before falling in the third round to Wisconsin to finish the season 25–11.
The 2012–13 Grambling State Tigers men's basketball team represented Grambling State University during the 2012–13 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Tigers, led by first year head coach Joseph Price, played their home games at the Fredrick C. Hobdy Assembly Center and were members of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. They finished the season 0–28, 0–18 in SWAC play to finish in last place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the SWAC tournament to Alabama A&M to become the eighth Division I team in NCAA history to finish a season winless.
Drew Cannon is an American statistician and sports writer who currently works on the Boston Celtics staff.
The 2013–14 Oakland Golden Grizzlies men's basketball team represented Oakland University during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Golden Grizzlies, led by 30th year head coach Greg Kampe, played their home games at the Athletics Center O'rena and were first-year members of the Horizon League.
The 2017–18 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2017, followed by the start of the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play started in late December 2017 and concluded in March with the 2018 ACC men's basketball tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Virginia Cavaliers won an outright regular season championship, their third in five years under the guidance of Tony Bennett, who also received his third ACC Coach of the Year Award. He also became the only living three-time winner of the Henry Iba Award for national coach of the year.
The 2020–21 Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils basketball team represented Mississippi Valley State University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by second-year head coach Lindsey Hunter, and played their home games at Harrison HPER Complex in Itta Bena, Mississippi as a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. In March, they were the worst ranked team in NCAA Division I according to Kenpom, with the least efficient offense and defense.
The 2021 West Coast Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the West Coast Conference during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The tournament was held from March 4 through March 9, 2021 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada. Gonzaga won the tournament, giving it the conference's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA tournament, in the process becoming the 16th team to enter the Division I tournament unbeaten. For the third consecutive year, the Los Angeles-based University Credit Union was the title sponsor of the tournament.
The 2021–22 Big 12 men's basketball season began with practices in October 2020, followed by the start of the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Regular season conference play began in November 2021 and concludes in March 2022. The 2022 Big 12 men's basketball tournament was held March 9–12, 2022, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
