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Monday, March 12Committee's selections make sense
By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
The NCAA Tournament selection committee was paying attention to Sunday's games by dropping North Carolina from a No. 1 to a 2 after the Tar Heels got blitzed by Duke in the ACC tournament title game. North Carolina's poor effort opened the door for the selection committee to make two Big Ten teams No. 1 seeds. What was surprising was the committee made Illinois more of a lock as a No. 1 by putting the Illini in the Midwest. That means the committee did put more emphasis on the Illini's win over Michigan State in the regular season. The Spartans then took Carolina's spot in the South. Making Duke and Stanford No. 1 seeds in the East and West was a no-brainer for the committee. "If North Carolina won Sunday, they would have been a No. 1," selection committee chair Mike Tranghese said. Sunday's games continued to matter for No. 2 seeds. The committee rewarded Kentucky with a No. 2 seed after it won the SEC tournament. The Wildcats were put in the East as a potential thorn in Duke's side possibly again in Philadelphia in the East Regional final. Boston College could have been upset with a No. 3 seed but the Eagles' weak non-conference schedule and the Big East's overall average play probably hurt them from getting a No. 2 seed. And one of the most dangerous four seeds was UCLA in the East. Iowa State didn't win the Big 12 and as a result got and deserved a No. 2 in the West. A hot Maryland moved up to a No. 3 by getting to the ACC tournament semifinals against Duke, won by the Blue Devils on their last possession. Once again, the committee paid attention to Sunday's games by giving Indiana a four seed in the West for its reaching the Big Ten tournament title game. Arizona, the hottest team in the nation that's not a No. 1 seed, will haunt Illinois as a No. 2 seed in the Midwest. But Ole Miss, because of its Sunday appearance in the SEC tournament title game, got the No. 3 seed in the Midwest. Kansas was a natural No. 4 by reaching the Big 12 semifinals. North Carolina dropped to a No. 2 in the South, with Florida the No. 3 by virtue of its run to tie Kentucky for the SEC East regular-season title. Oklahoma got to a four seed in the South, and yes, once again because of a Sunday victory in the Big 12 tournament title game. Tranghese said during the selection show that the committee is putting more emphasis on non-conference scheduling. That's why Georgia got into the field and Alabama didn't out of the SEC. Georgia had the toughest schedule in the nation, but was only 16-14. The Bulldogs were 4-5 against the top 25-rated teams while Alabama was only 2-4. The Tide were 1-7 on the road which didn't help their case, either. The Tide was the one team that could complain the loudest that it didn't get into the field. But strength of schedule helped Missouri, Xavier and Creighton get into the field while Connecticut, Villanova and Utah were squeezed out. The last teams to make the field were Oklahoma State, Creighton, Georgetown, Xavier and Providence. No one will complain that they got into the field. The committee did its best job at putting the field together, better than it did a year ago. Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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Katz: West should belong to Stanford Katz: Committee didn't do Duke any favors Shocking defeat costs UNC No. 1 seed Katz: No easy outs in Midwest | ||
