I listened to the Anonymous Eagle podcast this morning where Brewtown Andy made a guest appearance, and he made a point that I have also harped on for many years. The tournament round that a team makes it to before exiting does not determine the team’s success from that year.
Yes, the games matter since they’re played, but ultimately the round that a team will make it to is heavily determined by the matchups that they get. You can’t make the argument that Team X was bad because they only made it to Round Y unless you want to seriously make an argument that Loyola-Chicago was legitimately one of the 4 best teams in the country last year.