I know we have a Tourney thread going, but I wanted to give the SEC their own due. What did they get?? Three teams?!?!? I believe the MWC was hosed as well. How the Big10 got 7 teams is beyond me. Arizona has no business dancing...and I am one of the few UCLA guys who likes Arizona... but I just don't see it this year. I thought Auburn was pretty damned hot down the stretch... I thought, along with Tim Brando, that the Florida-Auburn game was essentially a 'play in' game for the tourney... How the hell did South Carolina not make it? Has anyone noticed that we've moved away from the great 'Cinderella' stories at the same rate the smaller conferences are being excluded from the Tournament? The CBS coverage showed that the smaller conference representation in the tourney has been declining for years.. Meanwhile we're getting 7 and 8 teams from one conference.. Absolute ********.. The SEC should have had 5 teams. I love how these snake oil salesmen blame the USC and Miss State's of the world who actually PLAY their way into the tournament, while glossing over the Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota making the tournament despite not winning a damned thing. The irony here is that they have Mike Slive out front on this. It is almost like they are saying 'hey, the SEC only has 3 teams so we don't obviously favor the majors'...It's a shameful farce. Thank God they play these things out though. This should be the best NIT field in the past 20 years at least.
I'm fine with the sponsor's exemption, if that's what it is. Maybe the selection committee liked our neutral court win over Gonzaga, our wins over the conference champion and runner-up, and the pasting we gave Kansas. Arizona did finish fifth in the conference with a lousy road record. Maybe the selection committee recalled that was also the case in 1997.
The SEC is weak this year relative to the other conferences with more teams in the tournament. The problem is that as they continually beat up on each other their collective SOS kept sinking. It's a cyclical thing.
You do know that the Div 1 Chairman this year is the SEC commish right? While you can always come up with a few teams that maybe should have been in the dance, Creigthon, SDSU. St. Marys all having beefs. I read where the non-power conf bids went down from 12 last year to 4 this year. The biggest cuts of all are for teams like Houston that didn't even make the NIT and are playing in the College Basketball Invitational!!!! Does anybody even know about that????
I think the SEC got hosed too Corey but not so much in the number of teams that got in but the seeding of the teams that did make it. While you can make a case for teams like Florida, South Carolina, and certainly Auburn; they didn't play their way in when the chips were down and had weaker non-conference schedules. However, when the SEC regular season champ gets seeded 8th, the highest rated RPI team in the SEC (21) gets seeded 9th, and the tourney champion gets seeded 13th (and this Miss. St. team was not a repeat of last year's Georgia team, they're pretty good), something is wrong. I just didn't like the seeding at all. By the way, did anyone catch the heated debate over St. Mary's not getting in between Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale? They were both pissed.
I go back to a statement that one of the Div 1 Chairmen made a while ago when taken to task over a couple of at-large teams who didn't make it...he said he understood that there was always going to be a couple of teams that some think should have made the field. But he pointed out that with the way the field is today that unlike the BCS a team worthy of the final 4 has not been left out. I guess he was referring to the fact that the last couple of teams out would likely have been 14, 15, or 16 seeds and none have ever made the final 4.
You can watch the clip on ESPN. I don't know about "pissed", though. I'll give Vitale credit for carrying the standard for the mid-majors, but as good as St. Mary's record is, it's still in the WCC and they still lost to Gonzaga three times last season, including just last week by 15 points.
Funny you should bring that up. My wife and I got into a discussion about the definition of being pissed just the other day. Apparently I take the phrase pissed off differently than the rest of the free world. To me, pissed off means highly agitated or aggravated while she contended that it meant very angry. Ah, whatever, just wondering if you're taking her side, Rick. :wink:
I promise I wasn't. :wink: I see your point, though. Vitale certainly was agitated, and again, it's hard to fault the guy for defending what makes the tournament so special - the chance for mid-major teams to play against teams from the larger conferences on a neutral court.
Terry, I named Mike Slive in my original post, of course I know who it is I just do not buy Slive's line that he had 'no idea the Big10 got 7 teams until the tournament was published.' Rick, Re: Sponsor's Exemption Gip, They also lost to Duke as well. Their wins over UCLA and Duke came a long, long time ago. Sid, I agree they are down. I also feel the Big10 was down. For that matter, the Pac10 wasn't great this year either. They were killed by early exits to the NBA last year. Aquila, I agree with what you're saying but it appears (to me) that the logic used to include some teams should therefore apply to teams like South Carolina who tied with Tennessee for the SEC East title and had a better overall record.
I think teams like South Carolina, Auburn, and Florida got left out because their SOS wasn't high enough. Tennessee beat Florida and South Carolina twice and split with Auburn. All three of those teams had better overall records than Tennessee but their records were inflated by their weak non-con schedule. Don't get me wrong, I think more teams from the SEC deserved to get in but I'm not sure who you would kick out to get them in. I hate to admit it but I just feel like the SEC was a mediocre conference this year in basketball. I don't watch a lot of other conferences but I do watch SEC games and I just didn't see the consistency it takes to be a legit contender out of a single team in the conference. There are many talented players in the SEC and I think Tennessee has several players that could play for any team in America but the consistent team play it takes to rise above the rest just didn't exist in any SEC team this season.
The main reason South Carolina got left out is because we choked down the stretch, losing 3 of our last 4 including our first game in the SEC Tournament. That left a bad taste in the selection committee's mouth and then throw in our SOS and we were doomed.
There were weeks during this season that no SEC teams were ranked in the top 25. And they spent over half the season playing each other. That's how to get hosed.
Florida is the first team from a major conference to win 23 games and not make the tourney. I will hold off making a judgment on if they were hosed until I see how the rest of the SEC does. If two SEC teams make the Sweet 16 I am going to say that at least Aub and Florida got hosed.
Mississippi State loses to Washington in the first round. If Tennessee and LSU make it to the second round, they both win the right to be slaughtered by the number 1 seed in the second round of their respective bracket.
I don't have much of a problem with what happened this year. Florida did not deserve to go but I do think Auburn and S. Carolina had some reasons to go. But not a big deal, I'll watch the NIT also. Yeah Terry, just what is this CBI thing anyway?
While I wouldn't put much money on it, if, and that's one of the biggest of if's, Tennessee shows up the same way they did against Bama and Auburn, they can beat Pitt.