Let’s start by congratulating the NCAA men’s tournament selection committee: It has come closer than ever to achieving its goal of eliminating at-large bids for anyone outside of the power conferences, turning the label “one-bid league” from insulting to damning. Sure, the Mountain West got four bids and the West Coast Conference two, but those traditionally have been multi-bid leagues. With the invention of the four “quadrants,” the committee has absolved itself completely of any responsibility to, you know, watch basketball.
The best example of this has nothing to do with the one-bid leagues; it has to do with the great and powerful ACC. Clemson finished two games ahead of North Carolina State in the regular season and beat the Wolfpackthree times by double digits, including an 80-54 win Thursday in the ACC tournament.
Yet N.C. State will play in the NCAA tournament this week, while Clemson gets relegated to the NIT. I’m sure the committee has its “quad” records to cite, but you don’t need an advanced degree to recognize this makes zero sense.
Feinstein’s rant about Clemson doesn’t add up. Clemson is being punished for a crap non-conference schedule; their NCSOS was #313. NCSU’s wasn’t a whole lot better (#196). In essence, Clemson got zapped for playing the kind of teams Feinstein wants to see more of in the tournament. Twenty of their 33 games were against teams in Q3-Q4 (and they lost four of those, including a loss to the Poultry).
Vandy’s NET is #81. The worst NET for an at-large in this field was AZ State at #66. Rutgers didn’t get in with NET of #40.
Other Vandy metrics: KPI #39, SOR #48, BPI #79, Pomeroy #80, Sagarin #62.
Moo U metrics: NET 49, KPI 51, SOR 40, BPI 44, Pomeroy 49, Sagarin 53. Better in every one except KPI.
Our metrics: NET 21, KPI 23, SOR 43, BPI 14, Pomeroy 20, Sagarin 23. Every single one better than Vandy, some a lot better.
Yeah, Vandy beat us and Moo U. They also lost by 57 at Bama. Moo U and us both lost by 3 at Bama. So you can play that comparative scores stuff all kinds of ways. And it’s still just one game out of 30+.
One more thing about Vandy: The committee undoubtedly took the loss of Liam Robbins into account in any discussion. Yeah, they won a couple of games in Nashville without him. but that’s still a major injury going into the tournament.
