Alabama Basketball: Hoops fans need to know the NET, SOR, KPI and BPI

Due to this season’s success, Alabama Basketball has some fans who have not been fully engaged in past seasons. To anyone who fits the above description, welcome aboard. In this joy of a season, the Alabama basketball team has already reached ‘lock’ status for the NCAA Tournament.

For years, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee included in their decision factors a team’s performance in its 10 most recent games. Wisely, that was discarded a few years ago. The full body of work of an entire season is what matters. At 22-3, Alabama already has a body of work that would guarantee a bid. Among the wins, it is not the 22 that matters much, it is that the Crimson Tide has seven Quad 1 wins and zero bad losses. The result is Nate Oats’ team is No. 1 in Strength of Record (SOR) among all Division One teams.

The four-quad system was devised by the NCAA to aid in the accurate seeding of each tournament’s 68 teams. Currently, Alabama is projected by Joe Lunardi and other Bracketologists as the overall No. 1 seed.

The NCAA updates daily its rankings called the NET, which is short for NCAA Evaluation Tool. Alabama is currently No. 2 in the NET rankings. It is both interesting and perplexing that the No. 1 team in the NET is Houston. The Cougars lost to the Crimson Tide on their home court. While that doesn’t seem right, the NET calculations have little to do with head-to-head matchups. Instead, it uses a team’s won-lost record and the records of that team’s opponents – plus the records of the opponents’ opponents. As confusing as that calculation appears, it is no challenge for the computer algorithm.

Can Alabama Basketball Fans Trust Computers?

Some Alabama fans, thinking back to the BCS era of football, remember how much the computer rankings were doubted. That does not happen as much in basketball, as variations in computer rankings are generally accepted.

There are many sources of computer rankings for basketball. They are either ‘results’ based or ‘predictive’ based, except for the NET, which carries a claim on being both. A well-known one is ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI). Alabama is currently No. 3 in the BPI.

Some fans and I am one of them, look more to Ken Pomeroy, who also has the Crimson Tide at No. 2 in his calculation, largely because his algorithm has the Tide losing to Tennessee.

Another good source is Ken Pauga whose algorithm is solely results-based, rather than predictive. His KPI Ranking has the Crimson Tide No. 1.

The Selection Committee, including member and Alabama AD, Greg Byrne, uses all these data sources and more. And rightly so, the human factor in selecting teams takes precedence.