After last night’s win over SMU, UH has now won 23 games this season. That’s the most regular season wins for the school since 1990. And Sunday, the Cougars go for a 16-0 home schedule which would be the first time that’s happened since 1983-84. Exciting times for men’s basketball with this team clicking heading into March and the Fertitta Center well on it’s way to completion.
According to the Bracket Matrix Project, which tracks March Madness brackets, Houston is currently a 6-seed and appears in all 84 brackets in the matrix. The Coogs are a 6-seed or better in 36 of the 84 brackets while two have UH as a 4-seed.
CBS and USA Today’s March 1 Bracket has UH as a 6-seed and playing in Dallas. That would be ideal! USA Today graphic:
Important #s for the Coogs:
23-6 record
13-4 in AAC
7-5 on the road
RPI: 20
Conference RPI: 10
Conference SOS: 75
Non-Conference RPI: 34
Non-conference SOS: 261
2-2 vs Top 25*
6-2 vs Top 50
Strength of Schedule: 103
Opponents’ SOS: 12
14th in Adjusted Scoring Margin
The RPI has been steady at or near 20 for several weeks. Our 7-5 road record is in the top 20 among tournament teams.
But as we’ve known since the schedule was released, the non-conference SOS is pretty bad. It isn’t the killer you would think, though: In Joe Lunardi’s Nitty Gritty Report, fully one-quarter (10 of 40) of teams that ESPN has slotted as a 10-seed or better have non-conference SOS of 240 or worse.
Obviously a lot can happen between now and the time the brackets are released in 10 days. But I’m having a lot more fun tracking UH’s seeding rather than hoping for an NIT bid.
Scoreboard watching
These are the teams we need to keep an eye on for seeding purposes:
Kentucky
Michigan
Clemson
Gonzaga
Florida
Rhode Island
TCU
Nevada
Arkansas
Creighton
Miami
Texas A&M
Virginia Tech
Butler
Seton Hall
Florida State
Mizzou
NC State
St Mary’s
– Seton Hall lost at home last night
– FSU lost at home last night to Clemson
– Friday, Rhode Island travels to Davidson (CBSSN – 7 pm)
– Saturday, Kentucky plays at Flordia (11 am – CBS)
– Clemson plays at Syracuse Saturday
– Nevada goes to SDSU (CBSSN – 9 pm)
– St Mary’s plays in WCC Tournament
*Arkansas is sitting at #26. Would be nice to get them into top 25 to improve this metric.
