UVA Basketball NET Report: Exam Break

The Virginia Cavaliers have hit the exam break so it is a good time to check in and see how their NCAA Tournament resume is looking with just two out of conference games remaining.

As a refresher, when the NCAA Tournament committee convenes to set the NCAA Tournament bracket, they use the “NET” rankings to determine who receives the at large bids and seed lines. A team’s NET ranking is comprised of a formula with a whole host of computer numbers incorporated (KenPom, RPI, etc.) and the team’s schedule and results from that year make up the team’s NET Report.

The NET Report is broken up into four “Quadrants.” Quad 1 shows the results of the team’s games at home vs teams ranked 1-30, neutral court games against 1-50, and away games against 1-75. Here’s how the Quads break down:

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Quad 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75

Quad 2: Home: 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135

Quad 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 136-240

Quad 4: Home 161-357, Neutral 201-357, Away 241-357

The official NET Rankings were released earlier this week with UVA debuting at No. 9 in the initial rankings.

Here’s what UVA’s NET Report (using KP’s rankings) looks like after the first eight games of the season:

The initial NET Rankings were not kind to the ACC. After abysmal starts, Louisville and Florida state have dreadful NET Rankings with Boston College not far behind. Louisville is so bad in the metric that there are only three teams ranked below the Cardinals in the entire ranking! If the ACC is going to avoid disaster with getting teams into the NCAA Tournament, all three of those teams need to improve their stock. There really is no reason for an away conference game in the ACC to be considered a Quad 4 game.

The rest of the league could use some improvement as well. Syracuse isn’t looking great in the metrics and if they drop any further, it could result in another ACC game for UVA that would be in Quad 4. Notre Dame and Georgia Tech have quality wins on their resume so hopefully their numbers go up and possible sneak into the Quad 2.

UVA has obviously done wonderfully thus far this season, but with just two out of conference games remaining and not many Quad 1 games, next weekend’s game against Houston in Charlottesville could do wonders for UVA’s tournament resume and keep them close to home in the first two rounds.