South shows selection process flawed

To say there’s an underdog charm to this NCAA South Regional would be understatement. This bracket, actually this entire tournament, has been sort of like throwing a Labrador puppy into a pit with 700 wild animals and 10 minutes later seeing it walk out, wag its tail and look at you while waiting patiently for a cookie.

Meet Loyola Chicago (11th seed) and Kansas State (ninth seed) — or Buddy and Max. So cute.

Wait, they’re still here?

“The committee tends to always favor bigger conferences like the SEC and the ACC,” Loyola senior Donte Ingram said Friday. “In my opinion, there’s some mid-major teams like St. Mary’s and Middle Tennessee (which both lost conference tournament games) that got screwed over.”

Let this serve as an indictment of the NCAA tournament selection committee. Something has to change.

late Thursday night, at least three low seeds had advanced to the Elite Eight: Loyola, Kansas State and ninth-seeded Florida State in the West. (No. 11 Syracuse was scheduled to play second-seeded Duke in the Midwest late Friday night.)

Upsets are common in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament. But to have nearly half the final eight teams being relative afterthoughts is extraordinary and suggests the selection process needs to be overhauled.

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Sanchez appears ready to contribute to staff,

Loyola-Chicago coach Porter Moser hugs team chaplain Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt after beating Nevada 69-68 on Thursday. ball needs. There are no one-and-dones on K-State or Loyola. (Note: Wildcats coach Bruce Weber, who once coached Illinois, pronounces it “LIEola.”) There’s no Prospect 1 or Coach 2 from the FBI findings. If these aren’t the usual regional finalists – again, they’re an utter departure from the usual – neither are they teams that make you hold your nose.

Weber took a oncebeaten Illinois to the 2005 title game, losing to North Carolina on Marvin Williams’ putback. He was fired seven years later. He hasn’t always been embraced at K-State, the chief complaint being the same as it was in Champaign – he didn’t recruit well enough. But how much did having Deandre Ayton profit Arizona and Sean Miller?

“I try to do it the right way,” Weber said Friday. “When the paper gets delivered or the news comes, my kids don’t have to worry that I’ve done something I shouldn’t.”

A few years ago, Weber ran some gifted players out of the other Manhattan. “We want kids who make K-Staters proud,” he said. “It was a hard decision … but it was not fun to coach. This team is fun to coach.”

This isn’t exactly venturing onto the skinniest of limbs, but neither Kansas State nor Loyola will win the national championship. That’s OK. We’ll recall the 2018 Big Dance less for its ultimate net-snippers than for UMBC and Loyola’s Sister Jean, and also for Ernie Barrett. He was on the K-State team that lost the 1951 NCAA final to Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky. He was in the K-State locker room hugging people when the Big 12 Wildcats stunned the SEC Wildcats.

Said Barry Brown Jr., whose flashing layup was the winning basket Thursday night: “We know that every team now is trying to make history.”

Kansas State already has dismissed one rank outsider, facing down UMBC two days after the Retrievers toppled No. 1 Virginia. It’s hard to imagine a No. 9 seed being the Goliath in any game, but that’s where K-State again finds itself, and this time the Wildcats are up against Sister Jean, who has gotten so famous she holds postgame brief- Loyola and guard Marques Townes plays Kansas State today at Philips Arena for a spot in the Final Four.

ings.

The Wildcats are a triumph of grit over skill. The Ramblers are a pretty team to watch. They move the ball and share the ball. They haven’t lost since Jan. 31. They’ve lost twice since New Year’s Day. They have no lottery picks. They have nobody who’s apt to play in the NBA. This a pure college team, something we almost never see so late in the tournament.

In accomplishment if not style, Loyola is reminiscent of Weber’s 2002 Southern Illinois team, a No. 11 seed that upset No. 6 Texas Tech and No. 3 Georgia en route to the Sweet 16. When the Salukis arrived in Syracuse for the regional, reality smacked them in the face.

“We got there and saw the other (teams’) banners – UConn, Maryland and Kentucky,” Weber said. “Our guys said, ‘We don’t belong here.’ ”

In this regional, all the Brand Names have gone home. The South will be won by a very good mid-major or a team that, two weeks ago, seemed a classic example of a nothing-special Power Five team that makes the Dance only because it’s a Power Five team. Maybe you’d rather have had Virginia versus Cincinnati, or Tennessee against Arizona, or Kentucky against anybody. Instead you’ve gotten a fat slice of history.

Maybe you won’t enjoy today’s game. Maybe you won’t even watch. It’s your choice. But there’s something about K-State against Loyola with a Final Four on the line that tracks closer to what college basketball should be than to what college basketball has become. Consider this a gift from the bracket gods.