Virginia rates high despite setback
Virginia suffered a surprising home loss to unranked Virginia Tech, ending its winning streak at 16 games.
One recent defeat was not enough to sway the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee. The Cavaliers are still viewed as the best team in the country a month before Selection Sunday.
Virginia was the top overall seed in preliminary NCAA tournament rankings released Sunday, a day after losing to the Hokies. Villanova, Xavier and Purdue earned the other No. 1 seeds.
“Virginia’s a dominant defensive team, but they’re much better offensively than they’ve been,” committee chair and Creighton athletic director Bruce Rasmussen said during the selection show. “They have a great strength of schedule and they’re 10-1 from home.”
The NCAA followed the precedent set by College Football Playoff a year ago by releasing its rankings early to drum up support for Selection Sunday. The preliminary rankings held up: The committee stuck with 15 of the top 16 seeds.
This year, the committee is using a new quadrant system that gives more weight to wins on the road and neutral courts.
Virginia, No. 2 in The Associated Press poll, has five Quadrant 1 wins, four wins against top-10 RPI teams. The top four teams are a combined 40-8 away from home this season.
The Cavaliers (23-2, 12-1 ACC) would play in Atlanta as the No. 1 seed in the South, a region that includes Cincinnati, Michigan State and Tennessee.
Villanova, the No. 2 overall seed, tops the East Region in Boston with Duke, Texas Tech and Ohio State. Xavier was the top seed in the Midwest Region, joined by Auburn, Clemson and Oklahoma in Omaha. Purdue, despite losing both of its games last week, is No. 1 in the West Region with Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona in Los Angeles.
Texas A&M men
Guard J.J. Caldwell was dismissed from the team and Jay Jay Chandler was suspended indefinitely after the two were arrested for possession of marijuana. The school announced the punishments, saying the freshmen violated Texas A&M policy. This isn’t the first time Caldwell has been in trouble. He was suspended for the first five games of the season for violating school policy.