Had to tell about the Big East, teams often look the part then collapse in the tourney, others don't look that great then go far. Goes to show any team can get hot or lucky. I subscribe to the peak theory, Baylor, Zags et al may have peaked as of now while other teams out there like Tech or SDSU may have their best games ahead of them. The most consistent teams (play wise) often don't take it all.
Baylor had that long pause due to Covid and it has hurt them. They got blown out by Kansas in their return game. Can they get their rhythm back is the question. Yet, they had a semi tough out of conference schedule, so that should help them in the tournament.
SDSU seems to be playing their best basketball right now in a very tough conference this year. They blew Creighton out by 30 last year, but is not the same team as they have problems scoring, but defensively have looked great. They do not match up with Gonzaga this year though. Bad matchup but few teams do. Next year SDSU is bringing in some incredible talent as they have 2 NBA type players, and should have an even better team than they had last year. They will also be young as they will be mostly sophomores and freshmen.
I think it going to come down on where you are placed in the bracket. Away from Gonzaga is best. Villanova besides one win against Texas is untested out of the conference. Creighton has not won or even played (besides 1 loss against Kansas) any tough games out of conference. I would be salivating to be in that bracket especially if they put Villanova as a 2 seed.
Michigan, Illinois and Ohio State also had weak out of conference schedules. It will be interesting to see how good these teams really are when they are not beating up on their own conference.
When you look at the out of conference schedules, it just seems that Gonzaga's is head and shoulders above the rest. I just don't see them being taken down very easily.
I have to laugh as they are trying to put in all the name teams regardless of how bad they have looked all year. Duke, NC, Mich St win a game and they have them on the bubble. If I was any other team, I would love to go up against any of them this year as they haven't justified any reason to be sniffing the tournament and will get destroyed when they play tough out of conference teams.
If anyone is interested, this is a great site for college basketball:
Data-driven NCAA tournament picks, bracket predictions, and odds for the 2021 NCAA tournament. Includes our latest NCAA bracketology projections.
www.teamrankings.com