Soon Releasing Player Cards for Top 100 Teams for Simulated March Madness

While insignificant in the the whirl of world events, I decided to go ahead and produce player cards for 68 teams who theoretically would have been in this year's NCAA and another 32 that would have theoretically made the NIT tournament. I may just play them off in one 100-team tournament once I've made them available (for free as always) here.

While the player cards will take at least a couple of days to calculate and produce, the quick math on Markus Howard is that he is one of 34 players in all of college basketball who will have possession of the ball on three of the 8-sided die rolls (he had the ball 37.4% of the time, and any player with at least 31.3 percent of their team's possessions gets the ball on three rolls).

If he gets the ball and the defender doesn't stop him or he doesn't get a free basket based on a level of competition factor that helps MU's cards due to the tough defense and offenses faced then the result of the 20-sided die determines if he gets a shot off or is fouled.

On a 20-side roll Markus Howard:

1. Makes a 3-pointer on a roll of 1-4
2. Makes a 2-pointer on a roll of 5-7
3. Gets fouled and 2 free throws on a roll of 8-11
4. Misses a 3-pointer on a roll of 12-16
5. Misses a 2-pointer on a roll of 17-20

If he is fouled he makes each free throw on a roll of 1-17 and misses on an 18-20. I won't go through all the rolls for turnovers, rebounds, steals, blocked shots etc., but that's the basic.

The way the seeding sets up I would play Marquette as the 8-seed in the West against Colorado in the opening round. However, if I go with the 25-team regions in one big tournament, then Marquette would need to first defeat 25-seed Prairie View A&M and Colorado would need to beat 24-seed Radford, shipped out West because there was no western team among the four 24-seeds.

Just Concluded All-Time Great Tournament

The two All-Time great teams did not do well in my all-time tournament as Dwyane Wade's Final Four team was upset by a West Virginia team they could not keep off the offensive glass, and the National Champs defeated Rick Majerus' Utah Final Four team before losing by a point to the historic 1966 West Texas team, which then went all the way to the Elite 8.

Wade's team was explosive but had one of the worst few defensive teams of the 96 all-time greats, while the 1977 National Champs had one of the best few defensive teams.

We just finished playing off this All-Time March Madness tournament (with Bill Walton's UCLA beating Michael Jordan's UNC in the final) when the 2020 March Madness was cancelled. We plan to make playing cards for the 100 teams that would have made March Madness based on the following criteria:

1) Conference Champions to NCAA: If a team had already won their conference tournament ("Tourn"), or was the team still alive in their tournament with the highest www.kenpom.com rating ("Top") they were considered the automatic qualifier to the NCAA from their conference.

2) Regular Season Champ Gets at Least NIT: If a different team from the conference won the regular season or even was tied for the conference title (unless the third or three tied teams based on the www.kenpom.com rating), then they are guaranteed of at least an NIT bid.

3) We then seeded the teams within each tournament based on their www.kenpom.com rating. We broke up the regions based on the basic direction of the four teams with that seed, giving preference to keeping the better rating closer to home if two were in the same region. However, as far as actually playing off the tournament I may just combine the NCAA and NIT into a 100-team tournament with the 1- through 7-seeds getting a first round bye and the 8-seeds vs. 25-seeds playing in the opening round etc.

Note: I actually decided to choose my seeds by going with the composite NCAA Bracket at the Bracket Matrix, and then I basically followed the Barking Crow NIT Bracketology, though I had to make a few adjustments for teams they had listed that made the final NCAA Bracket and vice versa. I made cards for those 100 teams - made on of the tournaments by one of those methods - and keep in mind some teams won their regular season title but were eliminated from their conference tournament prior to everything being cancelled - and those teams are guaranteed at least an NIT bid.

Player Cards Will Be Produced for These Teams

Here is how the teams rank and the regions in which I'd set them up.

Team	W-L	Conf/Champ?	KenPom	Off	Def	tourney	Seed	Region
Kansas	28-3	Top B12	1	8	2	NCAA	1	Midwest
Gonzaga	31-2	Tourn WCC	2	1	43	NCAA	1	West
Baylor	26-4	B12	3	17	4	NCAA	1	South
Dayton	29-2	Top A10	4	2	38	NCAA	1	East
Duke	25-6	ACC	5	9	12	NCAA	2	East
San Diego St.	30-2	Reg MWC	6	11	10	NCAA	2	West
Michigan St.	22-9	Top B10	7	10	13	NCAA	2	South
Ohio St.	21-10	B10	8	13	19	NCAA	2	Midwest
Louisville	24-7	ACC	9	12	30	NCAA	3	Midwest
West Virginia	21-10	B12	10	67	3	NCAA	3	East
Maryland	24-7	Tri-B10	11	18	22	NCAA	3	South
Creighton	24-7	Top BE	12	3	78	NCAA	3	West
BYU	24-8	WCC	13	7	60	NCAA	4	West
Houston	23-8	Top Amer	14	22	21	NCAA	4	South
Florida St.	26-5	Top ACC	15	32	15	NCAA	4	East
Michigan	19-12	B10	16	20	28	NCAA	4	Midwest
Oregon	24-7	Top P12	17	6	76	NCAA	5	West
Villanova	24-7	Tri-BE	18	15	36	NCAA	5	East
Arizona	21-11	P12	19	35	14	NCAA	5	Midwest
Seton Hall	21-9	Tri-BE	20	29	25	NCAA	5	South
Texas Tech	18-13	B12	21	47	9	NCAA	6	South
Wisconsin	21-10	Tri-B10	22	40	17	NCAA	6	Midwest
Iowa	20-11	B10	23	5	97	NCAA	6	West
Purdue	16-15	B10	24	50	11	NCAA	6	East
Butler	22-9	BE	25	25	42	NCAA	7	Midwest
Penn St.	21-10	B10	26	43	23	NCAA	7	East
Minnesota	15-16	B10	27	30	41	NCAA	7	West
Rutgers	20-11	B10	28	72	6	NCAA	7	South
Kentucky	25-6	Top SEC	29	24	52	NCAA	8	East
Illinois	21-10	B10	30	38	35	NCAA	8	Midwest
Marquette	18-12	BE	31	14	73	NCAA	8	West
Florida	19-12	SEC	32	27	61	NCAA	8	South
Auburn	25-6	SEC	33	33	55	NCAA	9	South
Indiana	20-12	B10	34	65	26	NCAA	9	East
Colorado	21-11	P12	35	54	32	NCAA	9	West
Oklahoma	19-12	B12	36	58	29	NCAA	9	Midwest
LSU	21-10	SEC	37	4	179	NCAA	10	South
Saint Mary's	26-8	WCC	38	16	96	NCAA	10	West
Wichita St.	23-8	Amer	39	117	8	NCAA	10	Midwest
Providence	19-12	BE	40	75	27	NCAA	10	East
Utah St.	26-8	Tourn MWC	41	49	48	NCAA	11	West
Virginia	23-7	ACC	42	234	1	NCAA	11.5	East
Stanford	20-12	P12	43	143	7	NCAA	11.5	South
Cincinnati	20-10	Tri-Amer	44	59	51	NCAA	11	Midwest
Xavier	19-13	BE	45	103	20	NCAA	11.5	South (MW if 25)
Richmond	24-7	A10	46	53	54	NCAA	11.5	East
Arkansas	20-12	SEC	47	55	57	NIT	1	West
Mississippi St.	20-11	SEC	48	19	119	NIT	1	South
Northern Iowa	25-6	Reg MVC	49	23	108	NIT	1	Midwest (West if 25)
N.C. State	20-12	ACC	50	42	79	NIT	1	East (South if 25)
Syracuse	18-14	ACC	51	21	116	NIT	2	Midwest
Connecticut	19-12	Amer	52	64	59	NIT	2	East
Oklahoma St.	18-14	B12	53	84	46	NIT	2	South
Washington	15-17	P12	54	112	31	NIT	2	West
USC	22-9	P12	55	145	18	NIT	3	West
East Tennessee St.	30-4	Tourn SC	56	69	65	NCAA	12	South
Notre Dame	20-12	ACC	57	41	100	NIT	3	East
Yale	23-7	Tourn Ivy	58	73	67	NCAA	12	East
Memphis	21-10	Amer	59	210	5	NIT	3	Midwest
Alabama	16-15	SEC	60	37	114	NIT	3	South
Texas	19-12	B12	61	153	24	NIT	4	South
Saint Louis	23-8	A10	62	111	44	NIT	4	Midwest
Arizona St.	20-11	P12	63	108	49	NIT	4	West
Georgia Tech	17-14	ACC	64	171	16	NIT	4	South
Rhode Island	21-9	A10	65	126	39	NIT	5	East
St. John's	17-15	BE	66	104	53	NIT	5	Midwest
Georgetown	15-17	BE	67	36	125	NIT	5	South
Tennessee	17-14	SEC	68	96	62	NIT	5	West
South Carolina	18-13	SEC	69	122	50	NIT	6	South
Davidson	16-14	A10	70	26	163	NIT	6	East
Louisiana Tech	22-8	CUSA	71	60	90	NIT	6	West
Clemson	16-15	ACC	72	155	33	NIT	6	Midwest
VCU	18-13	A10	73	138	45	NIT	7	South
Vermont	26-7	Top AE	76	98	68	NCAA	12	Midwest
North Texas	20-11	Top CUSA	77	34	146	NCAA	12	West
Liberty	30-4	Tourn ASun	79	107	69	NCAA	13	East
Akron	24-7	Top MAC	82	66	103	NCAA	13	Midwest
New Mexico St.	25-6	Top WAC	91	80	113	NCAA	13	West
Stephen F. Austin	28-3	Tourn Slnd	100	152	75	NCAA	13	South
UC Irvine	21-11	Top BW	106	121	109	NCAA	14	West
Bradley	23-11	Tourn MVC	107	92	134	NCAA	14	Midwest
Hofstra	26-8	Tourn CAA	108	62	187	NCAA	14	East
Belmont	26-7	Tourn OVC	109	97	132	NCAA	14	South
North Dakota St.	25-8	Tourn Sum	112	91	148	NCAA	15	Midwest (W if 25)
Colgate	25-9	Reg Pat	118	86	182	NIT	7	East
South Dakota St.	22-10	Co-Sum	119	46	241	NIT	7	West (MW if 25)
Eastern Washington	23-8	Top BSky	124	120	142	NCAA	15	West
Little Rock	21-10	Top SB	129	99	184	NCAA	15	South
Wright St.	25-7	Reg Horz	133	132	157	NIT	7	Midwest
Murray St.	23-9	Co-OVC	136	178	110	NIT	8	West
Winthrop	24-10	Tourn BSth	140	136	169	NCAA	15	East
Northern Kentucky	23-9	Tourn Horz	144	191	120	NCAA	16	South
Siena	20-10	Top MAAC	145	87	236	NCAA	16	East
Boston University	21-13	Tourn Pat	159	166	186	NCAA	16.5	Midwest
North Florida	21-12	Co-ASun	166	31	324	NIT	8	South
Radford	21-11	Co-BSth	186	118	272	NIT	8	East (West if 25)
Robert Morris	20-14	Tourn NEC	207	212	205	NCAA	16.5	West (East if 25)
Prairie View A&M	19-13	Top SWAC	213	282	131	NCAA	16.5	West
Merrimack	20-11	Reg NEC	227	325	101	NIT	8	Midwest
North Carolina Central	18-13	Top MEAC	272	319	193	NCAA	16.5	Midwest (South  25)