Plus look at these wins?
Played 3 tournament teams and went 2-2, yeah a loss to Canisius is bad, but then they beat two power conference schools on the road sooo. Whatever, they should've made it over the likes of Tulsa, Michigan, Vanderbilt, and even Syracuse. All those teams did was play really mediocre all year, congrats. So let's look at these teams who should have made it vs teams who didn't.
Teams who should have been in over Tulsa, Syracuse, Vandy, and even Michigan:
Monmouth, St. Bonaventure, St. Mary's, San Diego State, and Valparaiso.
I already went over Monmouth so let's look at the other three.
St. Bonaventure:
They lost more, but the A-10 is kind of on the same level as like the American Conference. They got St. Joe's, VCU, and Dayton in, but no love for the Bonnies. They split with Dayton and swept St. Joe's (who did get in with an automatic bid for winning their conference tournament I know), and lost their only game vs VCU. Their non-conference was soft as hell though as they only played Syracuse and they lost that game. So that part makes sense, but still Tulsa is awful and Michigan doesn't even have two of their best players so how is that better?
St. Mary's:
What did St. Mary's in was the non-conference schedule.
They never left the state of California and their toughest game was at Cal who beat them. Then they play in the WCC and outside of Gonzaga and BYU it's not that tough. They split the meetings with BYU and swept the Zags in the regular season before losing to them in the conference tournament title game. But let's take a step back, they ran straight through the WCC going 15-3. They had a better season than any of the teams that made it over them still. I honestly don't think any of Michigan, Tulsa, Vandy, or Syracuse would've done as well as they did, yet that doesn't matter because the NCAA can probably make more money off of them.
SDSU:
The Aztecs started slow going 7-6, but they actually played decent competition.
Then they ended the season 18-3, including winning 11 in a row after losing to Kansas. They made it to their conference tournament championship game before losing it to Fresno State. They played 5 tournament teams in the non-conference going 1-4 with the only win being at home vs Cal. Based on that they should have made it because the other bubble teams displayed the ability to lose to tournament teams as well.
Valpo:
It's a lot harder to make a case for Valpo, considering they play in the Horizon League and was upset by Green Bay. Now as a Wisconsin native I'd love to tell you that UWGB is a sneaky really good team, but they really aren't. They're good, but Valpo should've beaten them. But let's look at their non-conference schedule anyway.
It's ok. They played 3 tournament teams (Iona, Oregon, and Oregon State) and went 2-1 beating Iona and OSU. They only lost to Oregon in Eugene by 4. Obviously losses to Ball State and Belmont aren't great and losing to Wright State both times they played, and then the Green Bay loss. But they proved they can play with tournament caliber teams.
Now let's look at Vandy, Tulsa, Michigan and Syracuse.
I'm going to bunch them all together and be brief here. Sorry if you wanted more in depth but I'm getting kind of tired of writing this because I started it this afternoon, then I had class, and now all I want to do is watch this Vandy v Wichita game and pass out. So anyway here's the highlights.
Michigan beat Texas for their only real impressive non-conference win. Out of their 12 losses this year 11 of them were by double digits. Their average margin of defeat was 13.6 points. Including losing to Purdue twice, each time by 17 and at SMU by 24. I mean come on, and out of the bubble teams that actually made it I'd say Michigan was most deserving (other than Wichita State obviously, I have no problem with them).
Next up is Vandy who is losing to Wichita State as I write this. They have 13 losses this year, but a lot of them not as bad scoreboard wise as Michigan, but worse competition-wise. The SEC has two really good teams this year, in A&M and UK. They went 2-2 against them, both wins coming at home for Vandy. You don't get home games in the big dance though. Non-conference they played 7 tournament teams and went 2-5 beating Austin Peay by 39 and Stony Brook...in overtime. The losses were at home v Kansas by 13, at Baylor by 2, home v Dayton by 5, at Purdue by 13, and at Texas by 14. They also lost to Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Arkansas, oh and Tennessee in the SEC tournament. But hey, at least they beat Gardner Webb!
Now Syracuse had Jim Boeheim being suspended as a cop-out and it worked. I'm not as upset with Syracuse making it, but they had some brutal losses. Wisconsin beat them in Syracuse back when Wisconsin was complete shit, Georgetown beat them, and so did St. Johns. Both those teams were garbage all year. They did beat UConn and Texas A&M in their non conference tournament though. What I want to focus on with the Cuse is they lost 5 of their last 6, beating only NC State who sucks. It's not even like they got hot and impressed anyone, they totally fell apart.
Finally we have Tulsa, a team who was mediocre and played a mediocre non-conference schedule before playing in a mediocre conference where they went 12-6. They did beat Wichita State and Iona, so you can take that for what it's worth. But how do you know a team definitely shouldn't be in the tournament?
When even the players have no faith, they shouldn't be in. That's as loud and clear a sign you can have. But they did only lose to Memphis by 22 so maybe the 8 points are what saved them.
God is GOOD! Going Dancing💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼 #NCAA #MarchMadness— Shaquille Harrison (@ShaqHarrison_3) March 13, 2016
God is something, that's for true.
Anyway, the first four could have been absolutely dynamite tv, instead it's mediocrity central so whatever. The committee failing their job is just part of March Madness. Though again, I usually think the outrage is overdone, but when you fuck up 3 of the 4, instead of maybe just 1, it's bad.
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