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| Monday, March 17 They got screwed! By Ray Ratto Special to ESPN.com |
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Once again, college basketball has gotten it wrong, profoundly and deeply incorrect. Dreams have been dashed, hopes have been destroyed, aspirations have been exhausted by the cruelties of a few men in a private room. Yes, it's time for the annual national debate on the burning topic, "Who Did The NIT Screw This Time?" But first, this. The NIT hasn't really bothered anyone in some time, and it serves a useful enough purpose -- trying to sort out places 66 through 105 in the industry. But while we are still in mid-fulminate about Alabama and Seton Hall and Boston College and BYU, what of Texas A&M? What of Rice? What about the two ACC teams and the four Big East teams that didn't get invited? Damn and outrage, this must be investigated fully and completely, and this investigation must be concluded before the first NCAA game Thursday morning.
Sixth in the RPI, 20th in the rankings, and not every player on the team got caught in the academic/financial/weirdball fraud scandals. So take the players who are clean, trot them out with generic uniforms and without a coach and give them the reward they deserve?
True, the coach, the university president and the athletic director didn't feel like finishing their season after those cruel bureaucrats wouldn't let them play Bob Lanier, but they could have been a fascinating play-in game -- maybe with 2-25 Columbia.
Never mind the 48-66 aggregate record, or the average RPI rating of 147. I mean, if 15 percent of the field is already from the Big East, who's going to notice another four teams, give or take?
It's an ACC school, right?
Bobby Bowden could use a little cover right about now.
Same with Frank Solich.
The highest rated team not to be invited anywhere, while Brown, which did get in, was rated 81 places lower. Now we're not opposed to brains here, but what up?
Oh, it's not the Pistons? Never mind.
If they want the bother of planning to host a game in your tournament, their being taken by the NCAA should be no stumbling block.
Because 20 wins ought to still mean something, at least as much as San Diego State's 15.
Never mind the 9-21 record, this school should be in the NIT just so it can be the first school with initials nobody can decipher.
Sorry. That's the same school.
So is that.
Just shut up.
From the Free LeBron James' Closet Committee.
Planning Sunday games, are we?
Finishing last in the RPI is hard to do, especially when you remember that there are 327 teams out there.
You know, for the cheap patriotic vote.
The highest rated school never to have been to the NCAAs went to a lot of trouble to win 18 games and get noticed by somebody.
Even a cheap David Letterman reference is better than what they've got now, which is the agate page in USA Today.
Nope. French.
Schmoozing ESPN is always a good idea when you're trying to back and fill.
Run it like the FA Cup, or your kid's soccer league. Give David Lipscomb a chance to hang with Morris Brown. Give Western Illinois some quality time with Central Illinois, Northern Illinois, Eastern Illinois and Illinois State, so that Southern Illinois doesn't start putting on airs. Give St. Francis of Pennsylvania a chance to argue theology with St. Francis of New York, or Liberty with Oral Roberts. Besides, North Carolina A&T deserves a chance at that elusive second win. And if all this doesn't work, maybe see what the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing. Ray Ratto is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle and a regular contributor to ESPN.com |
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