Sunday, March 15, 2009

Another Year, Another Time the Committee Gets it Wrong

When the Midwest bracket was announced and I saw Arizona in as a #12 seed and Dayton as a #11, I had a bad feeling. When I saw the West Bracket and saw Maryland as a #10, Northern Iowas as a #12 seed and Mississippi State as a #13 seed, it got worse. And I knew, once Wisconsin was announced as a #12 seed in the East and they went through the bracket without Gonzaga, it was done.

St Mary's was being left out of the tournament.

Here's what I think happened. The genius committee had St Mary's in as their last team going into today. The committee had their bracket set out with St Mary's in the West to face Purdue in the #5-#12 game. When Mississippi State knocked off Tennessee (by the way, early prediction, all three SEC teams will lose in the first round), the committee moved Northern Iowa up to the #12 seed and put Mississippi State as a #13 seed.

Unfreakinbelievable. A team that couldn't get out of its own conference quarterfinals with a 2-9 road record, 5-10 road/neutral overall with a RPI of 62 gets in over a team that played most of its non conference games on the road, a 13-5 road/neutral site record (8-3 on the road) and has a RPI of 48. I thought road/neutral site record meant something. Apparently not.

I was right about one thing. Earlier I said, don't be surprised that Dayton was one of the final teams to be considered in or out. The final three teams in were Arizona (#12 seed), Wisconsin (#12 seed) and Dayton (#11 seed). Wisconsin was a little bit of a surprise, Dayton was not.

Still, the worst offense, Arizona over St Mary's. It's two years in a row that Zona didn't deserve to get in. Last season Arizona got in over Arizona State despite the Sun Devils sweeping the season series from the Wildcats. Somewhere, some Arizona donor has pictures on Miles Brand. Its the only explanation I can think of for the past two years.

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