Follow-up on the head shakers
- There were only two teams that I went so far as to say they had no business being in the Big Dance. Arizona and Kentucky got in soley based on their name (brand) recognition. The two teams lost by ten and 8 respectively. Tenth seeded Arizona finished 19-15 and 12th seeded Kentucky 18-13. I don't care who a team is; if they haven't won a conference tournament, they need to stay home with records like that. But the selection committee got what they wanted. Arizona made its 24th consecutive NCAA Tournament and they made more ratings off Kentucky than whoever else would have received the spot.
- I said that Davidson and Gonzaga both deserved six seeds instead of being forced to play each other in a seven verse ten match-up. Match-ups like these are put in place to ensure the elimination of the over-achieving small schools who play in arenas less than half the size of Pauley Pavilion. This year the joke was on the committee as the better Davidson team beat an over-rated two seeded Georgetown in the second round. Davidson was only one shot away from beating the eventual champion Kansas and going to the Final Four. Still, long lost is the fact that two top twenty-five teams were forced to play in the first round. Everyone would have a shahizzle fit if Duke and North Carolina were forced to play in the first round.
- The six-eleven match-up of USC vs. Kansas State was clearly rigged to get an OJ Mayo vs. Michael Beasley game. I knew that a team with 11 losses like USC was taking the seed of more deserving teams like Davidson, Gonzaga and BYU. Kansas State was realistically a bubble team at best, but the Beasley/Big 12 factor scored them an 11 seed. Kansas State won the match-up and then predictably got thrashed by a team like Wisconsin who had no stars but dotted all their i's and crossed all their t's.
- "They (BYU) sported 27 wins and seven losses, but Perdue and West Virginia who both had 24 wins and ten losses and worse RPIs were seeded six and seven ahead of them." BYU lost a close eight vs. nine match-up to Texas A&M. The Y or A&M were not very impressive. Although DeAndre Jordan is clearly the most NBA ready center and should go in the top five of the draft. BYU would have most likely beat Arizona or Baylor if they were seeded correctly. Even if not, they earned the higher seed. Instead they were under seeded and forced to play a monster of a center. Such a fate is not new to BYU. In 1992 a 25-6 BYU team was seeded tenth and forced to play a lesser 20-10 LSU team that was seeded seventh, but sported NCAA Player of the Year, Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq had one of his best games ever, setting an NCAA record with 11 blocks and LSU won the routinely jaded Cougars.
- North Carolina won the East Regional, never winning by less than double digits. Of course it helped that since they never had to leave the state and every game was essentially a home game. When they did finally play a neutral/road game in the Final Four, they got blown out by 18 to Kansas in San Antonio.
- Lastly, I complained about how the selection committee is made up of big school interests. This shouldn't be a surprise. Money is at the pulse of all major decisions across the board in sports. Just as MLB did not cede control of their drug program to an independent and fair panel, neither should we expect the NCAA to cede control of their selections to a fair and independent panel. I was merely pointing out the irony that the NCAA pretends to be the leader of ethics by sharply getting on teams and individuals for infractions. It would appear that it's much more a matter of business and power plays than that they are worried about morals.
We just hope to not excuse injustices that the future will be more fair. It's when we stop shaking our heads that we have to worry!
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