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Metrics: Fourth straight true road W only gives Virginia a nudge with the computers

Chris Graham
ncaa tournament
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OK, folks, so, yeah, it’s official – the computers that the NCAA Tournament people use are stupid.

Virginia (19-5, 10-3 ACC) won its fourth straight on the road last night, at Florida State – that was a Quad 1 win in RPI, incidentally – and actually dropped in two of the six computer rankings, and held in a third.

Metric Previous Rank Rank Today Change
SOR  27  22  +5
RPI  29  28  +1
KPI  30  24  +6
NET  32  34 -2
BPI  33  33  0
KenPom  47  48  -1
Average  33  31.5  +1.5

Yeah, this makes sense.

The win gives Virginia a 2-2 record in Quad 1 games and a 7-4 record in Q1 and Q2 games overall.

Compare that to, say, the resume of Duke, which also has four true road wins, a 5-2 record in Q1 games, and an 0-3 record in Q2 – two of those losses being at Arkansas (NET: 130) and at Georgia Tech (NET: 133).

Virginia’s Q2 losses: at Memphis (NET: 77), at NC State (NET: 80).

NET has Duke at 20, and Duke’s average rating across the six is 20.8.

Bad news for Virginia fans here: even going 2-0 this week won’t be a help in the computers, with both games being at home, against Pitt (NET: 61) and Wake Forest (NET: 33).

Those are both Quad 2 games for the ‘Hoos.

There are three Quad 1 games still on the regular-season schedule: at Virginia Tech (NET: 54), North Carolina (NET: 10) and at Duke (NET: 20).

Time to channel Tony Bennett here: just keep chasing quality basketball.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].