2024 NCAA Brackets

[Idaho]

1 minute ago, Red Blades said:

Be forewarned - Benny Baaker is the Bad Draw in this bracket!!

Benny Baker should have  NIL for a bag of flour or Pillsbury. There is a lot of potential there. 

[JimmyBT]

11 hours ago, Grecojones said:

I don’t understand the hate. It’s decent commentary. Much more in depth than what you get in the NCAA reveal. 

There’s a lot of unseeded hate here for Flo. 

[MidwestMan]

12 hours ago, 1032004 said:

I feel like a lot of that talk died down after seeing Mesenbrink/Hamiti, because people knew Mesenbrink deserved the 2.  And with Carr losing to Ramírez it’s kinda tough to argue putting him at 3.

To that point, the overall takeaway to me is that sitting out duals pays off.  Fix and Ramírez being the biggest beneficiaries.   As a result of the Carr/Ramírez situation I feel like we could see less guys enter CKLV because they don’t want to take an early season loss that they may not be able to avenge until NCAA’s.

I hate to see all this "gamesmanship" changing the priorities of the competitive season.  On one hand, you can protect future seeding, and to an extent, the "wear and tear" of a demanding schedule.  But, wrestling tougher competition also allows wrestlers to learn from losses, adjust, and prepare for the tournaments that count at the end of the season.  Take Iowa State as an example.  Carr takes an early season loss at CKLV, either because he wasn't prepared, off day, credit to Ramirez.  I'm sure that loss remotivated him.  That is what competition us all about.  Iowa State, as a team, wrestled through a tough schedule and their program has continued to improve as they are "fire tested", and I am a fan of their grit.  It seems to have worked for them judging their performance at Big 12's.  I'm a Mizzou homer and now the Tigers go into the tourney with 10 wrestlers, but not sure if they will win the "gritty matches!"  At one time, MU wrestled in the CKLV and some other notable tournaments.  Guess we'll find out how that "crystal ball" works out in the end.  Just call me pragmatic.

[Caveira]

13 hours ago, 1032004 said:

Starocci has wins this season over the #6, 10, and 13 seeds.

The #5 seed’s best wins are over the #7, 10, and 11 seeds, and he also did not do very well at the conference tournament.

If there was ever a time for committee intervention, Carter Starocci was it.

But does he have losses to 1) Andrew sparks the 9 seed in the bigs and 2) baumann the 10 seed at bigs?   

good news is he has a rematch with sparks in round 1 to see if he can avenge that loss.   

[1032004]

3 minutes ago, Caveira said:

But does he have losses to 1) Andrew sparks the 9 seed in the bigs and 2) baumann the 10 seed at bigs?   

good news is he has a rematch with sparks in round 1 to see if he can avenge that loss.   

Overall, I would say only losing to Sparks (who is seeded higher than Baker) and Baumann is not as bad as losing to Baker twice + Ruth

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

13 hours ago, Pinnacle said:

That is just it Vak, we don't really know. When these seeds were made for all anyone knew Carter was "drilling in the room" to dredge up a familiar refrain. And with Griffith also injured, maybe Mehki got the cake draw. 

When they all wrestle is when we'll know. 

Not to mention, Stall Rocky's conditioning didn't look spectacular prior to the injury.  I would be quite surprised if the injury improved his wind.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

14 hours ago, Paul158 said:

I'm going out on a limb and say Fix gets beat in the 2nd round by Bouzakis by a pin. You heard here 1st.

Unfortunately, Fix is pretty savvy in upper body positions.  I would love to see my last favorite world team member since PD3 get stuck.

[BarSeries]

This is my first year watching the NCAAs. Do any of the semifinal matches go at the same time or are they all on one mat and be able to watch each semifinal live?? 

[gromit]

36 minutes ago, BarSeries said:

This is my first year watching the NCAAs. Do any of the semifinal matches go at the same time or are they all on one mat and be able to watch each semifinal live?? 

they are on two mats simultaneously, held until both are finished before moving to the next weight. Four other consi matches are also going on at the ends of the dog-bone mat setup

Edited March 14 by gromit

[BarSeries]

7 minutes ago, gromit said:

they are on two mats simultaneously, held until both are finished before moving to the next weight. Four other consi matches are also going on at the ends of the t-bone mat setup

I see. Do we know ahead of time what matches are on each mat?

[gromit]

1 minute ago, BarSeries said:

I see. Do we know ahead of time what matches are on each mat?

yes, trackwrestling tournament/event dashboard is your friend. FloArena might also have it up

[macwoodfleet]

They also hold the semifinals and ESPN puts both on a split screen. It's a good viewing experience

[Wrestleknownothing]

19 minutes ago, BarSeries said:

I see. Do we know ahead of time what matches are on each mat?

IIRC ESPN usually does the split screen for the semifinals, too. Though they can be a bit unreliable with that.

[BarSeries]

Oh nice, split screen would be sweet for the semis. 

[CHROMEBIRD]

My usual bracket complaint: I wish the committee could seed the brackets a little more creatively without sacrificing fairness, so that we don't get so many repeat conference and conference tournament matchups... or guys from the same conference jammed on the same side. 

Would also be great if the criteria were adjusted so that instead of a minimum # of matches for RPI, wrestlers got a progressively better score or weighting, the more matches they wrestled. Also an adjustment to Quality Wins with a deduction based on "Quality Win Opportunities Missed"... This discourages wrestlers from earning a quality win and then ducking thereafter to preserve seed placement.