Comments from Readers and Thoughts on ESPN Coverage of NCAA Selection Sunday

Before I get into the reader comments (Hey, I actually got some!), I was watching this morning on ESPNU the replay of ESPN's coverage last night and the one thing that stood out in my mind was when they discussed the Arizona vs. Arizona State choice, Jay Bilas stated "Arizona is a better overall team than Arizona State".  WHAT?!!!  Thankfully, for once Dick Vitale had it right and said that "it doesn't make any sense" that Arizona State swept Arizona and is not in the tournament.  Seth Greenberg who called in as a guest to show stated that Arizona State "won those 80 minutes" over Arizona.  Cmon Bilas, how you can make a statement like that.   

They really dropped the Arizona discussion and discussed Arizona State's 5-10 over the last 15 games (no mention that Arizona went 4-8 in their last 12 and finished below Arizona State).  And the best part, is Bilas brings up Syracuse not being in the discussion and they bring up a graphic comparing Oregon, Kentucky and Syracuse!   And then they started railing against the RPI, which I agree, needs to be tweaked.  But Syracuse is not in because they didn't beat anybody in non-conference sans Temple, who only got in because they won the automatic bid.  Same as for Virginia Tech.  They didn't beat anybody of regard in non-conference.  Then Knight, Hubert Davis and company talked about how they, coaches and players, see the games and that these people on the committee or other selection experts (I think it was a shot at bracketologists) and they know better of who the top 64 teams are.  Cmon, you actually didn't need to see the two Arizona State/Arizona games to know who the better team was.  The results were the same - Arizona State won both and they finished higher in the conference. 

Finally, Bobby Knight said that they should get rid of the automatic qualifier, rank the top 128 best teams and have the first round be home games for the top 64 teams and then you would get the best top 64 teams.  Its not a bad idea but does that mean that conferences like the SWAC, MEAC, Southland etc get robbed of an opportunity to play in these games?  If so, then I am not for it whatsoever. 

Anyway, I got some comments and I'd like to thank Dolfan316, Dick Reardon and our own Tom Kemp for them and I'll try to answer them now. The first is from Dolfan316;

"Just discovered this site recently, believe it or not, and it's one of my bookmarks now. Now that the shameless flattery is out of the way I've picked Siena to beat Vandy as well, and Davidson to reach the Sweet 16. I can't bring myself to pick St. Mary's though, I just don;t get why people are so high on this team and I didn't get it in '05 either. Fun fact: 13 seeds have never gone winless in consecutive years and last year none of them won. Butler is criminally underseeded and will beat the Vols to reach the Sweet 16, where I have them beating Louisville in most of my brackets, shades of '03. You don't think Arizona's current active record of consecutive tournament appearances had anything to do with them getting in this year do you? So do I. As far as this sudden outbreak of mid major matchups in the first round, I'm afraid that after the George Mason Incident, the committee will be *extremely* mid major unfriendly for a while when ironically we all thought at the time that GMU's run would do the opposite and give the mid majors more respect and open doors for them. Nope. You better believe a lot of people were embarrassed by that, and these people are determined not to let it happen again."

Thanks Dolfan for adding us to your bookmarks.  Oh I love Siena vs. Vandy.  The Saints beat Stanford early in the year and crushed WAC champ Boise State AT Boise State.  I love Davidson as well, and I will be in Raleigh for the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament  and I look forward to Bob McKillop running that offense against a good underrated Gonzaga team.  And as I noted, Butler is criminally, criminally underseeded and Tennessee couldn't have got a worse draw in the second round.  And believe me I know Arizona's history and that jersey is what got the Wildcats into the dance.  Sorry, but there couldn't have been any other criteria except the famous strength of schedule criteria (and remember folks, one of my primer rules is not SOS but how you do against SOS).  Finally, I tend to agree about the sudden outbreak of mid major matchups.  It happened last year too with Butler facing Old Dominion among others.  Butler facing two mid majors in the first round in two consecutive years.  That seems like too much coincedence for me.

Dick Reardon writes;

How can a low RPI (32) a strong strength of schedule and a good record vs top 100 (9-5) keep Dayton out of NCAA field? Should they be a number one in the NIT?

First, thanks for writing this Mr. Reardon.  Second, no one was saddened more about Dayton's collapse after Chris Wright was hurt than I was.  I watched their game vs. Pitt and they played magnificently.  And they also had a strong win vs. Louisville.  There were two problems though for the Flyers.  First, they were 13-1 with Chris Wright in the lineup, 8-9 without him.  Second, they just struggled in conference during the season losing to teams that they shouldn't have; they lost at home to Duquesne, at lowly George Washington, who didn't even make the A10 tournament, at LaSalle, among others.  The Flyers needed to go 10-6 in conference (and just think its two more games they had to win to go 10-6).  Had they, they would have been in the tournament, no doubt.  You can't be .500 in the A10 and make the tournament.  Obviously in the Pac-10, Big East, ACC, or Big 12 you can (see teams that did make the NCAAs), but not in the A10.

Tom Kemp, I will get to your comment later because its a good one and I want to write about it.  But folks, thanks so much for the comments.  Please keep sending them in.  I know that I have to approve them to have them posted, but I need to keep the spammers out.  Even, If its negative, trust me, I will post it.

And to David Anderson, you are very welcome on the William and Mary posts, my pleasure to write about such a well coached, fun team to watch.

Comments

[sheila]

Butler won the Great Alaska Shootout. A fun team to watch. When Marquette won two years ago with most of the same cast of characters they went to the final four. When Dwayne Wade was on their team and they won the Shootout they went to the Final Four. Most teams who win this tourney go far into the NCAA tournament. Check it out. Mind you, one of my kids attends Tennessee and so I am ever so hopeful Bruce Pearl comes through. I think that the Badgers, my alma mater got hosed. Maybe it is good they are under the radar. What do you think? My other kid attends Oregon. How did they get a nine seed? I love Tajuan Porter. And yet one other kid attends Marquette. Noone says much about them and I would like your opinion. Yes, I have taken this week off.

[sheila]

About St. Mary's: There are less students at this school than attend my kids school in Eagle River, Alaska. For a school of this size to beat a PAC10 team, not to mention to lose only five games is pretty impressive. Ohio St. has 45k students and is not in the dance.