By John Clark
I didn’t watch the NCAA Brackets Show Sunday. I knew it was going to be a farce, and I didn’t feel a need to see somebody from the committee interviewed extolling the virtues of Nevada-Reno, Mississippi State, Boise State or Utah State.
Clemson got shafted – plain and simple. The Tigers tied for 3rd in the ACC regular season, but they are sitting at home and N.C. State is in the tournament. Clemson beat State 3 times this season by scores of 96-71, 78-64 and 80-54.
The Tigers also beat Duke 72-64, highly touted Penn State (9-9 in the Big Ten) 101-94 and Pitt 75-74. The knock on the Tigers per the committee was a bad loss to Loyola-Chicago early in the season and a 2-point rivalry loss to South Carolina. Plus a loss at Louisville in a league game.
I don’t have a problem with State getting in. The Wolfpack beat Dayton by 12 and lost to Kansas by only 6. They did beat up on Coppin State, Campbell and Elon, but everybody plays some cupcakes.
The biggest travesty in the selections was giving 4 bids to the Mountain West Conference. Who did they have on the committee? In the history of the Mountain West Conference their basketball teams have lost 55 of their 77 NCAA Tournament games. Since 2013 the Mountain West has won 5 of their 22 NCAA Tournament games – that’s 5 wins, 17 losses folks.
Boise State, Utah State and Nevada have no business being in the field. Nevada’s biggest win of the season was over Akron of the Mid-American Conference. San Diego State won the Mountain West and deserve their bid; the others – not so much.
Other fishy selections included West Virginia 7-11 in the Big 12 Conference with big non-conference wins over Stony Brook, Morehead State and Mount St. Marys. I like to watch Bob Huggins coach, but when you lose 11 of 18 conference games you don’t deserve a bid.
Mississippi State was another team to get a bid with a losing conference record. The Bulldogs were 8-10 in Southeastern Conference play and posted big non-league wins over Mississippi Valley St., Arkansas-Pine Bluf, Omaha and South Dakota. In fairness they did beat Marquette.
North Carolina didn’t get a bid. ESPN and their so-called bracketologist Joe Lunardi have been campaigning for the last month that Carolina was going to be the first preseason No. 1 pick not to make the tournament. Just shows how much preseason pollsters know.
In the Heels defense, they were 2 games over .500 (11-9) in league play and only a game behind Pitt, State and Clemson. Their 3 non-conference losses were to No. 1 seed Alabama in 4 overtimes, at No. 4 seed Indiana and to No. 6 seed Iowa State from the powerful Big 12.
But as we have seen a victory over Akron is more important than a 4-overtime loss to Alabama.
Coach Hubert Davis said Sunday night the Heels won’t play in the NIT. Don’t have a problem with that. In 1974 after losing an ACC Tournament championship game in overtime to eventual national champion N.C. State, Maryland Coach Charles G. “Lefty” Driesell and his Terrapins turned down an NIT invitation.
I didn’t expect the Heels to get in. I thought they deserved a bid more than Nevada, Boise State, Utah State, West Virginia or Mississippi State, but leaving Coach Brad Brownell’s Clemson team out was robbery.
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