Saturday, March 22, 2014

What did the committee do to Wichita & Louisville?



By Steve Kallas (posted by Rick Morris)

You have to wonder how the NCAA Selection Committee really operates when selecting a field and seedings and match-ups.  Despite the alleged modern day transparency, some decisions boggle the mind.   Also, you have to wonder whether things coaches say have any effect on seedings and match-ups.

TAKE WICHITA STATE, FOR EXAMPLE

All credit to Wichita State for going 34-0 and getting a number one seed in the tournament.  But they are rightly being criticized (from a win the National Championship perspective) because, frankly, the next ranked team they beat will be the first ranked team they beat the whole season (yes, they beat a good St. Louis team when they were unranked).

Unfortunately, their coach, Gregg Marshall, took it upon himself (in his us-against- the-world attitude, not necessarily a bad thing) to make this statement: “Wolves do not fret over the opinion of sheep.”

Funny as that may be, you have to wonder if it ever came up in the room when, after getting their number one seed, it became abundantly clear that Wichita State would have the toughest road to the Final Four and virtually a zero chance to go undefeated this year.

Why?  Well, if things go as expected, Wichita State, after the traditional easy first game, may have to beat Kentucky (a four or a five seed disguised as an eight seed), Louisville (a one or a two seed disguised as a four seed) and then Michigan or Duke (it says here Duke).

And that’s just to get to the Final Four.

So good luck to Wichita State.  But you have to wonder if the dumb statements of their coach had some negative effect of the view of them in the room.  It says here that they don’t make it to the Elite Eight.

TAKE LOUISVILLE, FOR EXAMPLE

Rick Pitino is a Hall of Fame coach and coaches the defending National Championship.  This year, in that new “American” Conference, Louisville went on a roll at the end of the year and won their regular season and conference championship.  They were ranked in the top five in the nation.

But lo and behold, in arguably the dumbest seeding in years, the committee made them a number four seed. 

Why did this happen?

Well, again, even though the committee reps will say what coaches say has nothing to do with seeding, let’s look at what Rick Pitino said after his team won their conference championship.

Right after the game, during an interview, Pitino said multiple times that he would not “politic” the committee for a high seed.  He said he would “leave the politicking to the politicians.”  In the middle of all of this, he did some politicking by saying he thinks that Louisville “should be a number one seed.”

So much for leaving the politicking to the politicians.

Yet somehow, inexplicably, Louisville was seeded as a number four, a joke in everyone’s opinion except that of the selection committee, the only opinion that matters for the NCAA tournament.

Hard to believe that what Marshall of Wichita State and Pitino of Louisville said did not have an effect on the committee, either consciously or sub-consciously.

WHAT ABOUT THOSE FIRST ROUND MATCH-UPS?

We will just look at two.  To add insult to injury (it says here), the committee gave Pitino a first-round match-up with Manhattan College (which, by the way, is in the Bronx).  Manhattan is coached by Steve Masiello, an on-the-rise coaching star who was 1) a ball boy for Pitino when he coached the Knicks; 2) a walk-on player at Kentucky when Pitino coached there; and 3) a Pitino assistant at Louisville for six years.

Both are unhappy about it and rightfully so.

But, again, you have to wonder whether this is what the committee does to those who criticize them.  After the Louisville-Manhattan game was announced, Pitino said that “maybe the committee is made up of football ADs,” later using the term “soccer ADs, I don’t know.”

Clearly he does know who is on the committee and was just voicing his displeasure. 

But to give some credit to the selection committee, the second match-up to look at is Dayton and Ohio State.

For years, Ohio State has ducked playing in-state rivals during the regular season.  In fact, Ohio State has only played Dayton (campuses an hour apart) six times in their history.  The last time was in the 2008 NIT (obviously not a regularly-scheduled game).
So, these are the kind of games that the selection committee SHOULD go out of their way to schedule.  But, if they admitted that, then the negative match-ups (Louisville-Manhattan) would clearly have been done on purpose.

You get the point.

NCAA FINAL FOUR

We’ll go Florida, Michigan State, Oklahoma State (forget their seed as well) and Louisville, with Michigan State beating Louisville in the Final.

Finally, if you are looking for that 5-12 upset that always seems to happen, we’ll go with North Carolina State over St. Louis.

Good luck in your brackets.

@ COPYRIGHT 2014 BY STEVE KALLAS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No comments: