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March Madness Notes - March 19, 2003

I was literally shaking in anger after the NCAA Tournament brackets were unveiled on Sunday night. I could not believe my eyes - NC State, Gonzaga, Auburn and Alabama in; Boston College and Seton Hall out. NC State had a lower RPI, more total losses, a far worse road record, a weaker record down the stretch and a poorer conference record than BC. Add to that the fact that the Wolfpack lost to BC on their own home court. The only advantage NC State had on paper was one more win against the RPI Top 50 (2-8 vs BC's 1-5). You see, it's all about politics and the Committee never fails to kiss a little ACC rear end whenever possible. Then there's Alabama. The Crimson Tide were 7-9 and in 8th place in the SEC (Scandal Everyday Conference). They are 7-10 since the 10th on January, finished 1-8 on the road and didn't even reach the quarterfinals in their conference tournament, losing in the first round to an awful Vanderbilt team. Yet the Committee decided to take the 8th best team in the 12-school SEC over not one, but two teams tied for third in the 14-team Big East because the Tide won a few games over some good teams three months ago. Apparently, the Committee thinks Bama's 5-7 record against the RPI Top 50 is so stellar that it erases the fact that they fail in every other category. Auburn didn't exactly light the world on fire either, finishing 5-9. The scary part is that Alabama is seeded 10th which leads you to believe that they were far from the last team to get in. Would the Tide have been in had they finished 6-10 in conference play? 5-11?

Team	RPI	Overall	Conf Rec	Road Rec	Last 10	RPI Top 50
Alabama	38	17-11	7-9	1-8	4-6	5-7
Seton Hall	42	17-12	10-6	3-7	7-3	2-7
BC	49	18-11	10-6	9-4	7-3	1-5
NC State	53	18-12	9-7	3-7	5-5	2-8

To be honest, I wasn't overly surprised to see NC State's name on the brackets, especially after listening to Dick Vitale lobby for them nonstop for two days. But, Alabama's inclusion (and seeding) is bizzare. So bizzare in fact that even Dick Vitale was critical of the selection and he thinks everybody deserves to be in the Tournament. The fact that Alabama is in the NCAA Tournament tells me that one of two things be true:

Someone on the Committee has a connection to Alabama or owed them a favor.
Someone (or some group of people) on the Committee has an axe to grind with the Big East.

Unfortunately, the NCAA seems to encourage incompetence and favoritism so we will probably never know why this happened.

Once my anger subsided, I searched the internet for Selection Committee Chairman Jim Livengood's phone number, which I found on the University of Arizona's web site. I called Livengood's office, but of course received his voice mail. I left a message voicing my shock and chagrin and told him that "I hope Alabama's check clears." I didn't get a return phone call. Big shock.

The other villian in this whole mess is Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese. Over the past decade, Tranghese has turned the Big East from one of the premier basketball conferences into a conference where a team can be four games over .500 in league play and be left out of the Tourney in favor of teams like Butler, Gonzaga and Southern Illinois. The Big East was once thought of as one of the six power conferences (along with the ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac Ten and SEC). The fact that two teams could finish 10-6 in conference play (one a division leader) and both be left out of the NCAA Tournament tells me that there are now five power conferences with the Big East in limbo next to Conference USA and the Atlantic-10. Tranghese's weakness and inability to fight for his teams has occurred regularly over the past ten years. Three years ago, Notre Dame was able to steal a football BCS Bowl spot from Virginia Tech (among others). In 2001, Boston College was 26-4 and won the Big East Regular Season and Conference Tournament, yet was given a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. This year, Pittsburgh duplicated BC's effort and wasn't even considered for a #1 seed. Then there is the fact that Notre Dame was allowed to join the Big East in basketball without being required to join in football. I could go on for days on this subject. I think it is clear that the Big East needs a change in leadership immediately.

The Selection Committee's seemingly endless supply of blunders didn't stop with the BC's snub:

The clear-cut top two teams in the country (Kentucky and Arizona) were placed on the same side of the bracket and will meet in the National Semifinals, not the Finals, should they both reach the Final Four. Committee Chairman Livengood claimed that this was done because Kentucky would play their Regional games in Minneapolis which is closer to Kentucky than San Antonio (850 miles away vs 1,150 miles away). Does he really expect people to drive to these locations or does he think the extra 30 minutes of flight time will keep Kentucky fans from attending?
Texas was given a #1 seed instead of Kansas even though the Jayhawks won the regular season title, advanced one extra round in the Big XII Tournament and beat Texas during the season. The Committee componded its mistake by matching Texas, the weakest #1 seed, with the winner of the play-in game which matches the two weakest teams in the tournament.
Pittsburgh, a #2 seed out of the Big East, would play their Regional games far away from home in Minneapolis, while #3 seed Syracuse would stay very close to home in Albany, New York.
Worst of all though is the Committee's montruous blunder of setting up BYU with a possible Sunday game in the Regional Finals. For religious reasons, BYU will not play on a Sunday. This means that should the Cougars advance to the Sweet Sixteen, they would need to be switched with a team in another bracket. The best part of this is that Selection Committee Jim Livengood is a BYU graduate. I think it is safe to say that Jim Livengood is the dumbest man on the planet.

The NCAA is certainly not doing its job if it does not remove Livengood from the Selection Committee before next year's selection process.

What is wrong with Billy Packer? He interviewed Livengood and his biggest issue was that Texas Tech was not invited to the Tournament. Texas Tech? Bob Knight's Red Raiders were 6-10 in conference play, but Billy thought that they should be in ahead of BC and Seton Hall? Thank god that clown isn't on the committee.

I am also sick of hearing how Butler was snubbed last year. I am certainly of the opinion that RPI is overrated but Butler's was RPI of 77 last year was too high for consideration. I think their biggest win was a two point victory over Waltham High School. Yet television commentators continue to talk about the injustice of Butler being kept out last March. It amazes me how these people jump on the soapbox without doing any research.

I think it is now time for the NCAA Tournament to expand to 68 teams. This setup would increase the number of 16/17 play-in games in four - one in each region. With this year's at large selection of Butler, Gonzaga and Southern Illinois, the Committee has demostrated the desire to include more teams from the so-called mid-major conferences. In the expansion to 68 teams, I would add a requirement that the Committee must choose at least two at large teams from mid major conferences provided that those teams have an RPI of 75 or less. With more good teams in the mid-major conferences, the overall quality of teams in the NCAA Tournament would not suffer with three additional at-large teams. The second benefit of a 68-team NCAA Tournament would be that the first rounds 2 vs 15 and 1 vs 16 games would be more competitive because the teams that are now 14 seeds would be 15's and the teams that are 15 seeds now would be tougher 16's.

Finally, I couldn't end this version of my notes without commenting on the horrible state of officiating in the Big East conference. Nearly every time I tuned in for a Big East game this season, the performance of the officials was putrid. In a game in January, the referees absolutely handed a key Big East game to Notre Dame at Conte Forum. Had the Eagles won that day, as they deserved to, they would probably be in the Tournament (though even 11-5 in the conference may not have been good enough for Dopey Livengood). Georgetown's Craig Esherick nearly blew his stack on numerous occasions and every coach in the league outside of the favorite sons Calhoun and Boeheim have a reason to criticize the league's officiating. Hopefully, this problem will be dealt with before next season.