Alright, I think I've touched on this before here. When bracketologists break down which teams will make the NCAA Tournament and which will not, they call the last teams that make the field (specifically the ones who play in the "First Four" games, which in my opinion aren't technically tournament games, but I will save that rant till next year) the "Last Four In," and they refer to the teams that they believe have the best records but won't make the field as the "First Four Out."
That is absolutely incorrect, and this is where I'm going to become a Grammar Nazi and go off. First of all, the final decisions when it comes to which teams to include in the tournament come down to those teams with records and breakdowns that are similar to each other and are, frankly, uniformly mediocre. So how come some of those teams in that same boat are "Last In" while others are "First Out?"
I guess I'm bringing up an obtuse argument first when I should have just blazed my guns with the obvious argument, but that is this scenario: When you say "First Four Out," you are saying that of all the teams that have been eliminated from consideration, those were, literally, the first four out. Take, for example, Monmouth, which, as of press time, is one of the First Four Out according to aggregator the Bracket Matrix. They have a record of 27-7 and they went 17-3 in their conference. Next, take Rutgers, which went 7-25 and was 1-17 in the Big Ten Conference. No, I'm not saying that the Scarlet Knights should be considered at all for The Big Dance. But that's my point: When you say Monmouth is one of the "First Four Out," you are saying that of all the teams that you evaluated and deemed not good enough to reach the NCAAs, Monmouth, with a record of 27-7 overall, was thrown out of consideration first ... that Monmouth was eliminated from consideration before a team such as Rutgers. That's what first means, people!!! Don't you guys get it?
Now, the real terminology that should be used is "Last Four Out," because when it came to selecting those final teams, there is a last in, and a last out. That was a quixotic quest from the start: Most bracketologists were erroneously saying "First Four Out" instead. I am blogging/bitching about this now because the few holdouts who had been saying "first" either have stopped projected tournament fields or have switched to using the phrase "First Four Out." Which means they caved into peer pressure. Those insecure folk will probably start putting an apostrophe before the "s" in plural words, like "First Four team's Out" or some other bullshit. Pisses me off.
Anyway, I hope to come back at around 4 to blog post again what should be the very final and up-to-date bracketology. But let's just say that, for the sake of the Last Four In (which are playing Play-In Games and, if I had my druthers, would be the LAST Four Out), you want UConn, St. Joseph's and Arkansas-Little Rock to win. Because if their opponents (Memphis, VCU and Louisiana-Monroe) win their title games today instead, a team that is projected to make the field, even as a Play-In, won't.
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