<p>The RPI is really only significant if you’re a team on the bubble. For a team that shares first place in the regular season ACC, and beat every ACC team at least once except for a couple, it doesn’t really matter. Maryland is actually lower than Duke on the RPI and has a lower SOS, but they’re still a 4 seed and Duke (was) a 6 seed. How do RPI or SOS matter there? </p>
<p>I think Syracuse got shafted, but that’s what happens when you have a tournament that throws in a lot of crappy conference champions like Albany. Florida State had a 41 RPI ( higher than Virginia, Syracuse, and many other teams in the tournament), had the 20th ranked SOS, had wins over Florida, VT, Duke, had no bad losses (only out of conference losses were to Pitt and Wisconsin), and still didn’t make it. RPI and SOS didn’t do crap for them there.</p>
<p>Hannanq, it’s possible, but Tennessee is actually very similar to us. They use guards a lot, and can be very inconsistent in their own conference (again, like us). They dropped a bomb on Florida near the end of the season (that game was total domination if you watched it), but they also have losses to teams like LSU and South Carolina in the latter half in the season that weren’t very close. I think it’ll be a fun game to watch.</p>