After a few quiet years, it was perhaps inevitable that the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee would yield unnecessary controversy with disastrous and downright ridiculous decisions.
Below is a breakdown of the committee’s biggest “airballs” with this year’s bracket.
Bubble teams
Where else would I start? The committee absolutely flopped with this one. Not only that but it managed to flop in the most shocking, yet perhaps most predictable, way.
Let’s cut to the chase: the North Carolina Tar Heels should be absolutely nowhere near March Madness.
The Tar Heels were 1-12 in Quad 1 games (yes, you read that right). Its best win was in December against UCLA, a seven seed. North Carolina failed to beat Duke not once, not twice, but three times. North Carolina couldn’t beat Louisville or Clemson either.
To put it bluntly, the Tar Heels had 13 opportunities and couldn’t capitalize. A team like that shouldn’t be rewarded with a tournament bid, no matter how “good” its metrics are. You don’t get rewarded for losing. Apparently, the committee begs to differ.
The committee also decided to reward another team with only one Quad 1 win: the Xavier Musketeers. The Musketeers’ best wins were over Marquette and UConn. Yet again, the committee seemingly decided that didn’t matter.
But what’s most shocking is who the committee inexplicably passed over for Xavier and North Carolina: the West Virginia Mountaineers. Unlike Xavier and North Carolina, the Mountaineers actually won big games against good teams, a seemingly novel concept to this year’s committee.
West Virginia defeated Iowa State, Gonzaga, Arizona, and Kansas. Moreover, of 111 projected brackets on the Bracket Project, every single one had West Virginia in the field.
I can excuse the decisions regarding Texas, who made the Tournament, and Indiana, who was left out of the Tournament. However, what is inexcusable is rewarding teams who have not shown they deserve to be in the field. West Virginia showed that, North Carolina and Xavier did not.
Seeding
It’s inevitable every year that people disagree with the seeding of the committee but some years it’s worse than others. Luckily, this year happened to be one of the better ones, though certainly not without multiple questionable seedings.
Consider Louisville, who won 21 of its last 23 games, as an eight seed. The Cardinals finished 18-2 in the ACC, with an overall record of 27-7. You would think that if the committee awarded North Carolina with a tournament bid, it would show some more respect to Louisville, who not only defeated North Carolina but performed far better in the same conference. You’d be wrong.
Other confusing seedings included Memphis being awarded with a five seed, much higher than most projected brackets had the Tigers, and Oklahoma, who lost 13 of its last 20 games, being awarded with a nine seed. None, however, are more surprising than what happened to Louisville.
There’s no way to sugar coat the failures of the selection committee this year. In fact, there were many. But while this year’s bracket will be scrutinized, questioned and criticized, and rightly so, nothing will stop the madness that always comes with March.
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