seem to arrive at the same place and my points. Athleticism is a great advantage and can win you a lot of games. However, in a tournament environment equally talented athletes maybe with more skill are likely one type opponent and slightly less athletic but, highly skilled and well coached are another possibility. In tightly contested tourney games athleticism MAY, not always, have less impact than skills and coaching. Your last paragraph is the conundrum and the goal still in search of an answer. I am not sure what the best solution is but, my belief is the NET, a team sorting tool is not the answer. The efficiency ratings do not necessarily take into account how teams play early season OOC games. A team with a set line up may bust out of the gate, garner a high net and that results in a further self fulfilling prophecy for conference play. Another may be searching for rotations and combinations, have players out due to injury and just scrape by or even lose and garner a lower net that further exacerbates itself with a negative impact for conference play. The long and short of it is the money guys pulling the strings like that the data and metrics afford them flexibility in spinning their desired narrative. All is well until the narrative collapses under the actual results of on court play say otherwise and fans become increasingly jaded and cynical when the system tells them one thing and their eyes tell them something else. The ACC is not exempt in this either. Take UVA this year. I doubt at year end many thought they were better than Pitt. They likely got the bid due to the "green jacket" effect of their natty. A deeper dive says other than the natty year they have been an early exit, including UMBC, and then you get into questions of style of play fitting the tourney. The system wins them a lot of regular season games and gets them to the tourney but, it may not be best suited for long term sustainable performance in the tourney. Just to be clear, I think Tony Bennett is a great coach and seems like an even better guy. His natty team had great players with DeAndre Hunter, Ty Jerome, Kyle Guy, et.al. That being said, UVA has largely punched above their weight due to system rather than talent, excluding that one special year. I think there are things that can be considered and done. However, until the football landscape is settled it would be a waste of time. Worse is if the SEC and B1G ultimately ends up running things, at least that is my opinion.