Maxpreps RPI to be used for Basketball Seeding

I know I've said this before, but what's the point of letting teams choose where to go on the bracket? Why not just align it with the seeding?

Everyone does whatever they can to avoid the dominant team, yet in doing that, creates an absolutely significantly easier path for the dominant team. It's literally doing what they are trying to avoid. It makes no sense.

And most of the time, they never end up playing the team they're trying to avoid.
 
Doublehelix said:
I know I've said this before, but what's the point of letting teams choose where to go on the bracket? Why not just align it with the seeding?

Everyone does whatever they can to avoid the dominant team, yet in doing that, creates an absolutely significantly easier path for the dominant team. It's literally doing what they are trying to avoid. It makes no sense.

And most of the time, they never end up playing the team they're trying to avoid.
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Exactly! They don't have to play the team they're trying to avoid.
 
The thing with Martin is his RPI was updated on Saturday morning for Friday games and Sunday morning for Saturday night games. At lot of times MaxPreps was lucky if it was updated by Tuesday.
 
serpico said:
These teams are trying to avoid losing. Not sure how going away from a #1 seed is a bad strategy.
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I understand why they are doing it - but it 100% makes the path for the dominant teams that much easier. You're literally making the best team's path easier. They don't need the extra help, but you're handing it to them on a silver platter.

I find that to be a flaw in the draw format. Just an opinion.
 
tcgobucks said:
The thing with Martin is his RPI was updated on Saturday morning for Friday games and Sunday morning for Saturday night games. At lot of times MaxPreps was lucky if it was updated by Tuesday.
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Not 100% on this, but I believe MaxPreps updates twice a week for rankings. Maybe like a Tuesday/Saturday.
 
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Doublehelix said:
I understand why they are doing it - but it 100% makes the path for the dominant teams that much easier. You're literally making the best team's path easier. They don't need the extra help, but you're handing it to them on a silver platter.

I find that to be a flaw in the draw format. Just an opinion.
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If you are coaching the 4 seed do you want to avoid the 1 seed or go play them early to make sure their path is harder? You have to look at the draw from an individual coaches viewpoint and not a fan viewpoint to understand it.
 
Doublehelix said:
I understand why they are doing it - but it 100% makes the path for the dominant teams that much easier. You're literally making the best team's path easier. They don't need the extra help, but you're handing it to them on a silver platter.

I find that to be a flaw in the draw format. Just an opinion.
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The whole point of the tournament is to win games, not worry about what the other teams are doing. Any team would want to stay away from the #1 seed as long as possible to 1) have the opportunity to win a game or 2 before you'd have to see the #1 seed.......and 2) the possibility of the #1 seed getting upset by somebody else....knocking them out of the tourney before you'd have to play them
 
tcgobucks said:
The whole point of the tournament is to win games, not worry about what the other teams are doing. Any team would want to stay away from the #1 seed as long as possible to 1) have the opportunity to win a game or 2 before you'd have to see the #1 seed.......and 2) the possibility of the #1 seed getting upset by somebody else....knocking them out of the tourney before you'd have to play them
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I think I'm pretty sure he gets the strategy. Lack of understanding isnt the issue. I think he falls in the same category as me. I'm in the camp of the whole idea of choosing where you want in a tournament bracket is dumb. The only thing I see coming from this way of seeding a tournament is you get a lot of lopsided brackets. I think the fact that this is how all of you grew up with this being done is the only reason it continues to this date.

If the playoffs were changed to this way in any other major tournament, NCAA, MLB, NBA, you name it, the entire country would lose their minds, and almost everyone would say it's the dumbest thing ever, including all the people on Yappi that seem to think it's great here in Ohio 😂😂😂
 
tcgobucks said:
The whole point of the tournament is to win games, not worry about what the other teams are doing. Any team would want to stay away from the #1 seed as long as possible to 1) have the opportunity to win a game or 2 before you'd have to see the #1 seed.......and 2) the possibility of the #1 seed getting upset by somebody else....knocking them out of the tourney before you'd have to play them
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I agree, obviously the whole point it to win as many games as possible. I would say that some teams specifically seeds 3-8 maybe might not choose to go away from the #1 seed in a given year, now that might not mean going at them game 1 but maybe in their quad to get them game 2 pending both seeds win. Last year here in NW OH in D1 was a good example of both using the Martin RPI and having a pretty balance top 9 teams. The interesting aspects from this district using the RPI last year was that the #2 seed was Tiffin Columbian, if under the old system where coaches voted they probably would have been closer to a 8-10 seed. A lot of this was because their overall record was pretty good but they didn't face many of Toledo teams in the district that all had more losses but were better teams. Now the team that ended up winning the district and getting to the state final four was Toledo St John's who was actually the 9 seed in the district and they chose to go at Tiffin right away. I'm not advocating for one system or the other but depending on the year and the type of team you have the system that let's coaches pick and choose who they play has a little strategy to it, probably more so if you are in that seed 5-9 where getting the right matchup or going after a team that you maybe already beat but is seeded 3 vs a team that is seeded 5 for example can make a difference in your tournament run. If they eventually structure this more like RPI and NCAA bracket style then that's ok too us coaches will adjust and still prepare to win as many as we can just less control on the path.
 
SWOHHoops said:
If you are coaching the 4 seed do you want to avoid the 1 seed or go play them early to make sure their path is harder? You have to look at the draw from an individual coaches viewpoint and not a fan viewpoint to understand it.
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Agree. It's not a coach's job to make the top seed's path harder. It's to help their team have the best odds of advancing in the tourney.
 
Philly_Cat said:
I think I'm pretty sure he gets the strategy. Lack of understanding isnt the issue. I think he falls in the same category as me. I'm in the camp of the whole idea of choosing where you want in a tournament bracket is dumb. The only thing I see coming from this way of seeding a tournament is you get a lot of lopsided brackets. I think the fact that this is how all of you grew up with this being done is the only reason it continues to this date.

If the playoffs were changed to this way in any other major tournament, NCAA, MLB, NBA, you name it, the entire country would lose their minds, and almost everyone would say it's the dumbest thing ever, including all the people on Yappi that seem to think it's great here in Ohio 😂😂😂
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I completely disagree, the tv ratings would be insane if you had all the power 5 basketball coaches in a room picking where they go on the bracket. Pitino jumps on Calipari and Kentucky, UNC went in the same bracket as Duke...etc. The content, storylines and second-guessing for sports talk shows would be at an all-time high.
 
Since OHSAA is going down this path do like football no. 1 seed plays the bottom seed and if there is a bye involved like yappi said the top seeds get the bye no choice. I don't know what was wrong with coaches picking the "seeding", in our area WCO they did a very good job once again OHSAA is making a mountain out of a mole hill or more likely trying to profit off the situation.
 
serpico said:
I hadn’t thought of that, but it really doesn’t change my objection. Our team is used to playing at nice, large sectional sites. If we get to host, our gym isn’t very big (or nice). It’s not going to be ideal for our home fans, and I’m sure the visitors would also rather play somewhere else.
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When was the last time Marion Local's gym was sold out? What is not nice about it, your royal a** can't sit on a wooden bleacher.
 
There's a lot more to choosing your tourney path than simply "avoiding the top team"... people want home games, people want games with shorter drives, people will take knowing that they'll likely get blown out in round 2 or 3 if it means getting a tourney win in round 1. For some programs, winning a tournament game is a significant accomplishment.
 
MCGal said:
There's a lot more to choosing your tourney path than simply "avoiding the top team"... people want home games, people want games with shorter drives, people will take knowing that they'll likely get blown out in round 2 or 3 if it means getting a tourney win in round 1. For some programs, winning a tournament game is a significant accomplishment.
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When teams played neutral sites a District could have two different Sectional site locations and some coaches selected their wanted site. Some coaches like early games while others like late games. Some District feed into a more desirable Region that coaches like to select. Travel, game time, location, and opponent can all factor into a coach's placement on a bracket. This is what coaches want to have the ability to control.
 
spirit454 said:
When teams played neutral sites a District could have two different Sectional site locations and some coaches selected their wanted site. Some coaches like early games while others like late games. Some District feed into a more desirable Region that coaches like to select. Travel, game time, location, and opponent can all factor into a coach's placement on a bracket. This is what coaches want to have the ability to control.
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100% agree with this. Here in NW OH over the years the neutral sectional sites were more local but now they are more spread out and taking a shorter trip to a more familiar gym or in a year we had talent looking farther ahead to the regional and that potential semi matchup etc make a difference (obviously still have to play the games) Under the old system when we were middle seeded 6-10 for example out of a 19-20 seed district) to me it was an advantage to select our opponent and try to find the best path to advance but what I didn't like is that if you weren't a strong 4 seed for example, seeds 5, 6, 7, etc might jump you game 1 or get into your quad right away so the top seeds don't have much protection from you, the only advantage is location or placement on the bracket. But again a lot of this is perspective on any teams situation in any given year. From my experience when we were seeds 1-4 we felt pretty confident on winning a district or farther, seeds 5-8 hoping to find a path to get a matchup to get us in a district final. seed 9-12, same hoping to find a path to get to a district final or make some noise and win a couple games, seeds 13 and on you are generally just trying to find at least one win or you are on your way out, don't care, or stuck with being given what's left on the bracket.
 
goshengophers said:
Someone will correct me, I'm sure, but I thought Kentucky uses an RPI.
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Kentucky and Michigan both use an RPI for tournament seeding. Michigan's is not through MaxPreps. Don't know whether Kentucky's is affiliated with MaxPreps. Wisconsin, Colorado, Utah, Washington, and North Carolina also use an RPI. I'm sure there are other states using an RPI.
 
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Philly_Cat said:
I think I'm pretty sure he gets the strategy. Lack of understanding isnt the issue. I think he falls in the same category as me. I'm in the camp of the whole idea of choosing where you want in a tournament bracket is dumb. The only thing I see coming from this way of seeding a tournament is you get a lot of lopsided brackets. I think the fact that this is how all of you grew up with this being done is the only reason it continues to this date.

If the playoffs were changed to this way in any other major tournament, NCAA, MLB, NBA, you name it, the entire country would lose their minds, and almost everyone would say it's the dumbest thing ever, including all the people on Yappi that seem to think it's great here in Ohio 😂😂😂
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100% accurate.

It's almost like they made this up at some point at an attempt to be creative, or someone in charge sold people on it to benefit their own team(s), and simply don't want to change it, even though it's not done this way anywhere else.
 
While this saves the coaches that actually give a rip about ranking fairly from the unprofessional coaches, just check out your schools maxpreps schedules right now and see where they could run into constant miscommunication and confusion. I realize it can be easily cleaned up but already seeing ohio schools scheduled against schools from idaho because they share the same name as an opponent.
 
ripvanwinkle said:
While this saves the coaches that actually give a rip about ranking fairly from the unprofessional coaches, just check out your schools maxpreps schedules right now and see where they could run into constant miscommunication and confusion. I realize it can be easily cleaned up but already seeing ohio schools scheduled against schools from idaho because they share the same name as an opponent.
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Money is now involved. I’m assuming it will end up being cleaned up. There were more than likely guarantees in place before the deal was made. It won’t be maxpreps Ohio like it is currently constructed.
 
What’s not mentioned here is travel for the first couple games. If I’m a lower seed, Why should I have to Travel 75-100 miles, when I can stay within 30 miles of my first and/or second opponent.
 
1 time said:
What’s not mentioned here is travel for the first couple games. If I’m a lower seed, Why should I have to Travel 75-100 miles, when I can stay within 30 miles of my first and/or second opponent.
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I'm not positive but I don't think the OHSAA can force you to play a tournament game. You can tell them No Thanks. Football teams that have qualified for the playoffs have already done it.
 
spirit454 said:
I'm not positive but I don't think the OHSAA can force you to play a tournament game. You can tell them No Thanks. Football teams that have qualified for the playoffs have already done it.
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There are alot of teams that bow our gracefully when it comes to tourney time. And I have no issue with it. Sometimes it's best to call it quits.
 
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