tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7193007137551439191.post2285202304627513086..comments2023-12-27T18:04:21.987-05:00Comments on From Old Virginia: lacrosse bracketologyBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10506945153264825303noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7193007137551439191.post-35123375036006149042012-04-02T18:41:59.998-04:002012-04-02T18:41:59.998-04:00Wouldn't be very interesting if I just plopped...Wouldn't be very interesting if I just plopped all the teams down in order of their poll ranking. Besides, I specifically warned in the post about thinking the polls have any bearing on the tournament seeding. They do not. At all. Regardless of the sport, the polls are at most an interesting discussion topic and nothing else, and should be totally ignored in any talk of tournament seeding.<br /><br />As for the computer rankings, a much better question. The answer is that those rankings take margin of victory into account, and weight it very heavily. In bracketology, margin of victory hardly ever comes into play, except perhaps when comparing two teams with similar resumes and checking their common opponents. <br /><br />The computers, for example, see Team A beat Team C by 10 and Team B win by 8 and conclude Team A is the better team. They may be right, but the goal of the computer rankings is to be predictive, whereas tournament seeding is not. If Team C is Somalia State, bracketology really doesn't care about the nitpick of how much you beat them by. Computer models do, though.<br /><br />In Princeton's case, the computers give them a lot of credit for losing to excellent teams by slim margins and by beating up on others. They beat Brown 13-2, for example. Would 13-2, instead of, say, 13-7, improve their tournament position? No, it wouldn't, but the computers like it. Princeton has only beaten one team with a winning record (Villanova) and that's the sort of thing we care about in bracketology.Brendanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10506945153264825303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7193007137551439191.post-62599518773054040662012-04-02T15:59:02.193-04:002012-04-02T15:59:02.193-04:00i'm a tad confused why the lax bracketology ha...i'm a tad confused why the lax bracketology has uva #3.... when "if the season ended today" we're the #1 team in the country?<br /><br />and can you explain princeton's ranking when they're so high in computer polls? http://www.laxpower.com/update12/binmen/rating01.php<br /><br />love the blog. favorite uva blogger for sure. just would love a little more detail in number form, i think?#16noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7193007137551439191.post-4911903970707884822012-04-02T13:51:54.854-04:002012-04-02T13:51:54.854-04:00Virginia Hack, clearly your opinion is incorrect, ...Virginia Hack, clearly your opinion is incorrect, since you haven't been initiated into the inner circle of the laxpower forums. Not like that guy "humb le", who seems to be the Billy Mitchell (from King of Kong) of this particular in-group.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7193007137551439191.post-20062887502329679542012-04-02T09:43:27.968-04:002012-04-02T09:43:27.968-04:00OT: Tough weekend loss for the baseball team. Br...OT: Tough weekend loss for the baseball team. Branden Kline pitched a great game against Rodon (boy, Rodon looks dynamite and the Pack look like they have a nice 2-3 year window with their young talent), and when the Cavs rallied in the 9th yesterday, that was exciting.<br /><br />Still, to be expected with this squad against quality opponents. There's enough offense, enough pitching to keep them hanging around and competitive, but not enough to go into a series against a good team and think that we have a high percentage shot to win the series.<br /><br />The best part is that this is a nice building year for 2013, as the chances are high that we won't lose a bunch of guys (Kline seems like a goner if he keeps this up, as he's a potential top 2 round college arm, but not sure I see many non-seniors going pro). Of course, the flip side is replacing an arm like Kline is tough.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com