Bracketology 2013: Analyzing Teams That Were Severely Underseeded by Committee

As soon as the NCAA tournament brackets are released, everyone does two things: pick winners and complain. After seeing this year's seeds, there are a few teams who have a right to do the second part.

The usual focus at this point is on the snubs who were not given a chance. With some terrible resumes full of awful losses, any team on the outside looking in has only themselves to blame.

However, a few squads with solid seasons deserved higher seeds than they got and are now looking at much tougher paths to success.

While everyone but No. 1 overall seed Louisville will argue that they should be ranked higher, these are the teams with the most legitimate claims that they were underseeded in the field of 68.

No. 12 Oregon

Selection committee chair Mike Bobinski stated after releasing the brackets that Oregon should have been a No. 11 seed but were placed lower during the bracket process, according to Andy Katz of ESPN. The problem is that this is still too low for the Ducks.

If you look at the way some other teams were placed in the tournament, Oregon could have been worthy of a No. 8 or No. 9 seed at the very worst.

The Pac-12 tournament champions had a number of good wins, few bad losses and were playing better with Dominic Artis back on the court, the team's leader in assists. 

Consider the fact that UCLA is a No. 6 seed in this tournament. The Bruins finished one game above the Ducks to win the Pac-12 outright, but Oregon won both head-to-head meetings between the teams. While UCLA has three wins over Arizona, the Ducks also won their only meeting against the Wildcats.

UCLA also has worse losses (three to sub-100 RPI teams compared to Oregon's one) and will be without second-leading scorer Jordan Adams for the tournament.

An argument could be heard that UCLA deserves a better seed than Oregon, but these squads are not five or six lines apart. The Ducks should have been much higher.

No. 8 North Carolina

Although North Carolina might not have had too many elite wins this year, there is no denying that this team is much better than the No. 8 seed would indicate.

The Tar Heels finished third in the ACC this season behind Miami and Duke, two teams that were given No. 2 seeds in the NCAA tournament. While North Carolina was unable to beat either squad during the year, the team has won the last 11 games versus everyone else.

Things started to click for this squad since they went with a smaller roster of P.J. Hairston and Reggie Bullock technically playing in the frontcourt. In reality, the duo has been draining three-point shots at an incredible rate and forcing matchup problems with any opponent.

However, it is more than just the eye test and the hot streak that should have the team ranked higher. The committee always wants major-conference teams to schedule tougher opponents, but no respect was given to North Carolina's eighth-toughest schedule in the country. 

In addition, the Tar Heels won the games they should have, with only two losses coming to teams ranked lower than 35 in the RPI.

Despite all of this, North Carolina is forced to face a tough Villanova team in the first game and possibly No. 1 seed Kansas afterward. This is not a fair deal after a good season.

No. 8 Pittsburgh

In this case, it appears as though too much emphasis was placed on the Big East tournament.

Pittsburgh might not have had the toughest non-conference schedule, but the Panthers played Michigan tough and ended up with a 12-1 record. They continued to play well in the Big East and finished with an impressive 12-6 mark to earn fourth place in the conference.

The season included wins over Georgetown and Syracuse and only one loss to a team outside of the Top 50 in RPI.

However, all was forgotten as soon as the Panthers fell to Syracuse in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

All of a sudden, Pittsburgh is four seeds behind the Orange, one seed behind Notre Dame and only one seed ahead of Villanova. While the Wildcats had some good wins, there is no way their season matches closely to Pittsburgh on paper or on the court.

The Panthers are fortunate to have a winnable path in the NCAA tournament. They face Wichita State early and have the worst No. 1 seed in Gonzaga. Still, these are tougher games than they should have gotten after the solid year. 

For a full printable NCAA tournament bracket, click here. Also, follow along Bleacher Report's live bracket. Make your picks for the 2013 NCAA tournament here with the Bracket Challenge Game.

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