By: Mike 'Coast'
The NCAA selection committee released their long awaited field of 65 yesterday and as usual it came with many surprises. This year, I am probably the most confused of all time. Teams that should have been in without a doubt like FSU and Syracuse were left out, and teams that I didn't even know were on the bubble, like Stanford, got the invite. This is nothing new for the Seminoles though. They have had their bubbles burst every time they have been on the bubble essentially. There is also no way of convincing me that Xavier or Arkansas deserved a bid either.
The first point I would like to make is that the Stanford Cardinal have no right being in this tournament. Their resume is about as lack luster as mine applying for a job as GM of the Bills. Stanford had an RPI of 65 and a SOS of 32nd in the nation. They lost home games to Air Force and Santa Clara by a combined 50 points. They did beat UCLA at home but FSU beat Florida at home and Syracuse beat Georgetown at home, so what does a home win versus a good team get you? Further, they lost 6 of their last 9 games and lost their first game of the Pac 10 tournament. What is the committee rewarding here? Solid play within the conference at home and no big road wins? Are they rewarding a team that stuggled down the stretch and lost their tournament opener? This doesn't make sense to me and shoudln't make sense to anyone. Stanford is completely undeserving.
The Seminoles were only 7-9 in the ACC which was arguably the best conference in college basketball. I was not surprised to see them out but to see Stanford in was mind boggling. FSU has 2 more wins as they sit at 20-12. They are 41st in the RPI and their SOS is 20th. They won a big road game at Duke which is a tough place to win even when the team is stuggling. FSU beat Florida, the number one seed in the entire tournament. They beat Maryland and Virginia Tech convincingly. FSU also won 3 of their last 4 games including a win over Clemson who in my opinion is even more deserving than Stanford. FSU's other 2 wins were against Miami and NC State which may have looked weak at the time but after watching the ACC tournament, any ACC win is a good win. Also, all of Florida State's losses came against teams in the RPI top 50. They have no embarassing 34 point home losses to a military academy team. This just doesn't make sense.
I know it can be argued that FSU shouldn't have been in because of their 5 game losing streak as well. These losses came with an injury to their starting point guard Tony Douglas. The committee failed to take that into account. My point is that there is no way of rationally explaining how Stanford is in and Florida state is out. The methodology is very inconsistent.
On the same wavelength is Arkansas. They were 7-9 in the weak SEC west. They were 21-13 overall, a weaker winning percentage than FSU. However, they do have a better RPI at 35 and a better SOS at 10. 7 of their 13 losses however came vs. teams that didn't even make the NCAA tournament. Not a single team as a matter of fact even made it to the tournament from the SEC west. Talk about weakness...0 teams from their portion of the conference made it to the tournament. They made it to their conference tournament final but they did so by beating the likes of Miss. State and South Carolina. Their only respectable win came against Vanderbilt. When they played a high caliber team in the tournament it looked as if they didn't belong on the same court as Florida. Perhaps their biggest road win on the season was at Alabama who was then ranked 12th in the country. Alabama did not make it to the NCAA tournament.
Another team that is mind boggling is Xavier. Xavier?!?!?!?!? Coming out of the powerful Atlantic 10 conference. They are a 9 seed, the same seed as Marquette and Michigan State. The A 10 is a terrible conference top to bottom. How is the A 10 fielding multiple teams? The A 10 is not better than any mid major conference. Their RPI was a decent 33rd, but their SOS was a terrible 82nd in the country. At 24-8, they lost to the likes of Saint Louis, St. Joe's, Duquense, Bucknell and Cincinatti. Their best win was probably at Va. Commonwealth. The committee says they take into account the quality of teams an at large teams plays. That obviously isn't the case.
Another team with a serious gripe is Syracuse. They finished 5th in the Big East at 10-6 and were 22-10 overall. They won at Marquette and beat Georgetown at home. They have a good road win and beat one of the best teams in the country. Also, they were playing good down the stretch which is supposed to matter but obvisouly only matters when the committee feels like it. They were 7-3 in their last 10 including that win over the Hoyas. The selection dudes can complain about their weak non conference schedule all they want but their SOS still dwarfs than of Xavier and their RPI is much better than Stanford's (46 and 50 respectively). 10 wins in a BCS conference should always be enough to get you into the postseason and I am not talking about the NIT.
Just another take, Niagara got shafted. They won 11 in a row and 5 of their losses came when 6 or so of their players were suspended, including the MAAC's 2nd leading scorer Charron Fisher. The play in game needs to be abolished. A team works so hard to make it to the tourney and then they get rewarded by not really making it to the actual tournament. It is bogus. Niagara will cover vs. Kansas and could win. They will beat Florida A and M by 30. Fisher has a chip on his shoulder now and that is not what the committee wanted to do.
Just a quick take on the Bills. They resigned the A train which makes me sick to my stomach. The Bills don't have a featured back so in 2007 I am anticipating running back by committee. Anthony Thomas is going to be part of that committee and that is scary. The Bills need Marshawn Lynch at WORST in the draft. Trade up for Peterson. I will give up a 1st, 2nd and 3rd at this point, seriously.
