BIDS FOR MIDS
Non-power conference teams deserve NCAA Tournament spots more than ever
IT’S AN annual February tradition: Discussing the woeful state of the NCAA Tournament bubble. This year, with the struggles of the Pac-12, Big East, Big 12 and Atlantic 10, the teams hovering around the edges of the Big Dance seem worse than most years.
But there is a simple solution for the NCAA Tournament Committee. Value actual winning. Reward mid-major teams. You know, the groups that own March anyway, that make the first weekend of the tournament the best four days of the sports year.
Everyone will remember last year’s NCAA Tournament for what UMBC, Buffalo and Loyola-Chicago accomplished, the upsets those three pulled, not Villanova cutting down the nets in San Antonio. But if those three failed to win their conference tournaments, they would not have been invited to the party. We would still be waiting for a 16-seed to knock off a No. 1, as UMBC did to Virginia. There would be no Sister Jean, the Loyola-Chicago chaplain and face of last year’s Final Four darling.
At the mo me n t , Bracket Matrix, a site that averages out 105 Bracketology projections, has underwhelming and inconsistent teams like Indiana, TCU, Oklahoma, N.C. State and Clemson in the tournament, teams that are all under .500 in their respective conferences. Even Arizona State, which has a NET rating of 75 and ugly losses to sub-100 teams Princeton, Vanderbilt and Washington State, is apparently in good shape. Meanwhile, midmajors such as UNC Greensboro, Furman and Murray State wouldn’t make it without winning their conference tournaments, and we aren’t even cons i der i ng if s mall - co nfe re nce powers like Hofstra, Vermont, Wofford and Lipscomb don’t win their conference tournaments.
Three conferences in particular — the MAC, Ohio Valley and the Southern Conference — should be in the conversation for multiple bids.
Buffalo, ranked 25th in the country, isn’t even alone in first place in the MAC East, tied with Bowling Green. Wofford is undefeated in the Southern and has a 20-point road win over South Carolina and competitive losses to North Carolina and Mississippi State, and the league has two other teams — UNC Greensboro and Furman — that should be considered for at-large berths. Furman has road wins over Villanova and Missouri Valley Conference leader Loyola-Chicago, while UNC Greensboro played Final Four contenders LSU and Kentucky tough on the road. Murray State and Belmont are tied atop the Ohio Valley. Murray, led by projected top-five pick Ja Morant, has narrow road losses to Auburn and Alabama. Belmont, meanwhile, has two wins over highly regarded Atlantic Sun favorite Lipscomb, a win over UCLA and a tough road defeat to Purdue.
The committee has gone away from rewarding mid-majors atlarge bids in recent years. Only Nevada received one last March, while St. Mary’s was the lone mid-major to get in the tournament without winning its conference tournament the year before.
It wasn’t always this way. In 2011, the first year the tournament went to 68 teams, seven spots were given to teams from non-power conferences.
The playing field isn’t even. Teams from the SEC, A CC, Big Ten and Big 12 get so many chances for quality wins. The power of their conferences boost sup their strength of schedule. The smaller schools can be almost perfect, slip up once in March and see impeccable seasons ruined.
This is the right year for the committee to make a stand. Include more mid-majors. Give the public what it actually wants. Send a message that winning still means something. Don’t reward mediocrity.
Kentucky worthy of a-Tenn-sion
Aside from second-ranked Duke’s 34-point shellacking of Kentucky on opening ni ght, there hasn’t been a more impressive performance against an elite opponent than what we saw from the Wildcats on Saturday evening in Lexington. Their 86-69 beatdown of No. 1 Tennessee wasn’t even as close as the score indicated, a thorough and onesided mauling of a national championship contender.
What made this so impressive was the manner in which it happened. Fifth-ranked Kentucky out-physicaled the physical Volunteers, limiting National Player of the Year candidate Grant Williams to just four shot attempts, beating Tennessee up on the glass 39-26 and locking down the country’s second-rated team in offensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com. Tennessee’ s 69 points were its fewest in 12 league contests as it shot just 40 percent from the field and was outscored 36-20 in the paint.
This was a statement to the rest of the country from the deep and improving Wildcats: We aren’t the same team Duke whipped on in November.