Seeding: While people are arguing over whether or not Virginia Tech/Colorado/St. Mary's were screwed by the selection committee my biggest issue was the seeding. Did the selection committee draw names out of a hat to determine the seeds? Florida at a 2 seed? Yes they might have won the SEC East and played in the SEC conference title game, but they lost to Jacksonville and UCF during the year. That doesn't count against them? There are other teams seeded in spots that made me scratch my head like Michigan State as a tenth seed, Illinois as a ninth seed. I can go on and name other examples (hello 10th seeded Georgia). I have a bigger problem with the seeding than the teams that were left out of the tournament.
Gene Smith didn't have a good weekend: The selection committee chairman Gene Smith did not have a good weekend. First he admitted to Jim Nantz that teams like Colorado didn't "fit the style of play" they wanted in the tournament without going into details. What did Gene Smith mean with these comments? Does the way Colorado play offense not fit the selection "criteria" because I can argue none of the Big Ten schools should have made the tournament based off of "style of play."
Gene Smith later went on the ESPN show and dropped this bombshell: Each member of the selection committee has a different criteria for selecting teams into the tournament. As Jay Bilas said on Twitter, "Why?" Why isn't there one criteria for all the members each year to select teams to the tournament. Needless to say, because I'm a conspiracy theorist when it comes to sports, this opened Pandora's Box to me at what type of shady dealings may be going on surrounding the selection committee. I know the selection committee chairman, no matter what year or what conference they represent, always try to get as many teams from their conference into the tournament as possible. But what other deals are being made to get a specific team into the tournament at what seed? You can see where there are problems with what Gene Smith said about there isn't one criteria for each of the selection committee members. Gene Smith did not have a great weekend.
UAB and VCU made the tournament?: Can somebody explain to me how UAB and VCU made the tournament, the first four to be exact, and teams like Colorado or St. Mary's didn't get in? VCU lost 4 out of their last 5 games and then lost in their conference tournament title game. St. Mary's lost 3 out of their last 3 games, but the Gaels at least shared the regular season WCC title something VCU didn't. And both teams lost in their conference tournament title game. So who deserves to get in? I would've put St. Mary's in the tournament simply because they actually won their conference regular season title while VCU didn't. And while UAB did win their regular season conference title, their schedule was paper tissue soft. They lost non-conference games to Arizona State and Georgia. St. Mary's at least beat one tournament out-of-conference team in St. John's. We know Colorado didn't fit the "style of play" for the selection committee but I guess the NBA offense Mike Davis prefers to run did. Confused yet? I sure am.
So what did we learn this year on selection Sunday? First we learned you have to have a "style of play" that fits the selection committee's needs. Second we learned the selection committee doesn't have one criteria while choosing teams for the tournament. And third we learned that having the AD(Smith) of a school (Ohio State) that just saw their high profile football coach(Jim Tressel) admit to lying to the NCAA during the same week of selection Sunday can lead to curious interviews and even more curious selections for the NCAA Tournament.
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