Winning Big Ten tourney didn’t seem to matter to committee
Make it make sense.
Iowa is the Big Ten tournament champion and won its last four games, including a squeaker over the secondranked Indiana women. It has a player of the year candidate in Caitlin Clark and the country's most prolific offense.
And yet the Hawkeyes were snubbed by the selection committee Sunday, seeded No. 2 while two teams – not one, two! – that are stumbling into the NCAA Tournament earned No. 1s.
“We looked at the whole body of work and not just the conference tournament,” said Lisa Peterson, chair of the NCAA'S Division I basketball committee.
Yes, but what's a better indicator of how a team is going to fare in the tournament? How it played in January and February? Or what it did in the conference tournament?
Unless injuries were a factor, how likely is it that teams struggling down the stretch are going to turn it around now, when the pressure is high and you're facing unfamiliar opponents on quick turnarounds?
The selection committee takes injuries into account – as it should. But so, too, should it consider a team's form and, in this case, it didn't.
At least, not enough.
Iowa's six losses are more than any of the No. 1 seeds, yes. But four were against ranked teams, and three of them were in the top 10 at the time. Only one was at home.
More importantly, Iowa ended the season strong, winning seven of its last eight games. That included a defeat of second-ranked Indiana on Clark's buzzer-beater in the regular-season finale and a win over then-no. 5 Maryland in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.
The Hawkeyes then bulldozed Ohio State to win their second consecutive conference tournament championship. Clark had the first triple-double in the history of the conference tournament, with 30 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds.
Contrast Iowa's recent resume to that of Indiana, the No. 1 seed in one of the Greenville regions.
Besides the loss to Iowa, the Hoosiers were upset by Ohio State in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament. That's right. Indiana didn't even reach the final of the conference tournament.
Stanford, the No. 1 seed in the same Seattle region as Iowa, has a similar resume of late. It lost its regular-season finale to Utah and then bowed out in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament to UCLA. The Cardinal is below Iowa in both the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and The Associated Press Top 25.
But the committee still deemed Stanford more worthy of a No. 1 seed.
Besides, all this might be wasted outrage.
The winner of the Seattle region where Stanford is the No. 1 seed and Iowa is the No. 2, and presumably would have been No. 1 had the committee flipped it and Stanford, will likely have to face South Carolina in the Final Four. Which will be … daunting.
South Carolina, which returns four starters from last year's national championship team, is undefeated. Hasn't lost a game in more than a year, in fact, since the final of last year's SEC conference tournament. The Gamecocks lead the country with a whopping 30.3 scoring margin.
Now, no team has repeated as champion since Uconn won the last of a fourpeat in 2016.
If that Iowa-south Carolina matchup does happen, it will be proof the Hawkeyes deserved better.
The Ohio State women are a No. 3 seed and will host James Madison in the first round at Value City Arena. If the Buckeyes advance, and they should, they will play the winner of the 6-11 North Carolina-purdue game, also at Value City. And if the Buckeyes move on to Seattle for the Sweet 16, they just might face second-seeded Uconn, which is seeking its 12th NCAA title. Tough draw.
Back on the men's side, first- and second-round games at Nationwide Arena (Friday-sunday) include a matchup of the Big Ten future (USC vs. Michigan State), it has Purdue, and it has a local flavor (Marquette's Sean Jones, out of Gahanna Lincoln).
Purdue and second-seeded Marquette, by the way, are two of only three teams that won both the regular season and tournament titles in their conference. Will both teams make it to the second weekend? We'll get to see with our own eyes.
Purdue coach Matt Painter has made it to five Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight in his 17 seasons at the school. Generally speaking, though, he has a reputation for disappointment; his Boilermakers have eight times been bounced by the end of the first weekend. As for Marquette's Shaka Smart, pride of Kenyon College, he made the Final Four with VCU way back in 2011. He has also lost in the first round six times in a row with VCU and Texas.
Both have big expectations heaped upon them once again this season.
The third team to pull a regular season-conference tournament double was …
Tarkanian, who led a fabulous UNLV team to the national title in 1990, captured the essence of a very particular type of hypocrisy when he said, “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, it put Cleveland State on two more years' probation.”
This year, Kansas and Oklahoma State can be subbed into that line.
Oklahoma State is one of a handful of basketball programs that were caught up in an FBI corruption/bribery investigation five years ago. Kansas was another school that was part of the FBI probe and, in the eyes of the NCAA, was a much bigger offender (five Level I violations to one).
Kansas' Bill Self signed a “lifetime” contract extension in 2021, coached the Jayhawks to the national championship amid an investigation last year, served a four-game suspension earlier this season and has his team back in the tournament as a No. 1 seed. (Per Self's new contract, he cannot be fired for cause “due to any infractions matter that involves conduct that occurred on or prior to” the day it was signed. Dude has a great lawyer.)
Oklahoma State (18-15, 8-10 in the Big 12), with a NET ranking of 47 and a solid record in (arguably) the toughest conference in the country, to get into the tournament. But they got Cleveland Stated by the selection committee.
Every year, two or three teams with tournament-worthy resumes don't make the cut. But if there's one that has a right to feel punished, it is Oklahoma State. (Oh, be quiet, North Carolina.)
Kent State ran an excellent Toledo team off the floor to win the MAC title. Then, they got a No. 13 seed and a date with Indiana in the first round. Tough draw. The MAC doesn't get enough respect.