Left-out Big East teams have the right to gripe to NCAA Tournament selectors
Thinking out loud …
Sometimes a little perspective is necessary to help us understand those hard-to-explain moments in time, especially in our corner of the sports world.
For instance, if you had said back in January when the Friars’ Bryce Hopkins went down with a crushing knee injury that the Providence College men's basketball team would finish with 20-plus wins and be in the discussion for postseason play — you would have had at least one screw loose in your head.
What these Friars accomplished through grit and determination is something that should be appreciated, even if it ultimately ended in the NIT — thanks in part to an NCAA Selection Committee that simply "don’t know ball."
More: Banged-up Providence basketball makes quick exit in NIT. What happened vs. Boston College.
More: Here's why next season starts now for Providence basketball coach Kim English.
It has been a week of scorched-earth attitude from fans, big-name coaches, media and even a few athletes in and around the Big East Conference following a clear measure of disrespect thrown the way of the league Dave Gavitt built.
It has been a week of talking out of both sides of one’s mouth. One set of standards applied in one place; another set saddled around the necks of deserving programs like an albatross. Seton Hall, St. John’s, Providence and even Villanova all had rightful, logical and emotional gripes about the swift and stunning exclusion from the field of 68 teams.
Absolutely, it was a confluence of circumstances not often seen during March Madness. The bid stealing by teams otherwise not good enough to reach the tournament through regular-season play in other leagues was unprecedented. We’ve been told there were two bids “stolen” on the last day over the past couple of years, whereas there were five snatched away this past Sunday for this year alone.
The trouble, however, was in the moving of the goalposts as to the reasons why teams were left out — including the Friars.
This year’s NCAA Selection Committee, chaired by Charles McClelland from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (and included retiring Butler athletic director Barry Collier), undoubtedly worked hard at their task — a nearly impossible task — of attempting to please everyone. But people can also work hard at their task and still screw it up. And these people screwed it up.
Not for nothin’, but like referees and umpires — if you don’t know their names or notice their performances, they did a good job. This committee? Why is their performance still a “thing” today?
What many fail to realize, perhaps, is that those who are “wrong” aren’t clued into why they’re wrong in the first place. Criteria for success moves all over the place. And this has been a chief complaint with selection committees in previous years who simply overlook teams. There are new or different standards applied nearly every year.
So, what is it going to be? The NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool)? Kenpom ratings? Predictive metrics? When did the selection committee lose sight of wins and losses — of who you play and where you play them?
Our moving-of-the-goalposts moment that fried most reasonable minds this year came from committee chairman McClelland, who was clearly unprepared for the bleep-storm that followed in the immediate aftermath of the panel's carnage. Michigan State, a 9-seed with a 19-14 record, was selected because of its number of Quad 1 (good) victories. He said that. Sparty was 3-9 against these “good teams.”
Providence had six of those “good wins,” a record of 21-13, but apparently wasn’t close to making the field. Seton Hall and St. John’s had more than three of those as well. Virginia had only two of those Quad 1s, they were the final team selected — and got pounded in the First Four.
What are we doing here? Did anyone on that committee actually watch any games? I’d say, embarrassingly, no. And that’s where any displeasure with selection results should lie.
Is it wins, or road wins, or predictive metrics that decide who plays in this tournament that can mean millions to an athletic program or conference? Millions are needed to stay competitive in the modern era of college athletics, where the ability to pay name, image and likeness money to athletes is required to keep up with the Joneses. Or the SEC or Big Ten or Big 12 — or even the Mountain West.
They’re all leagues with major football programs, too. Hmm.
The Big East just got blocked in the back. Face-masked and horse-collared to the turf. It was utter and complete disrespect toward the league that Gavitt built and that Mike Tranghese cultivated into a cultural game-changer for everyone in college athletics.
PC coach Kim English told the media this week that metrics are "[expletive].” If you wanted metrics, St. John’s should have been a pick with a NET of 32. Indiana State was 28 and didn’t get in, either — lowest number of all time to not get in.
Big-time wins? Seton Hall defeated UConn and Marquette. Volume quality wins? Providence had six, more than any of the bubble teams that got in.
Got irony? The Big East was the No. 2 conference in overall NET rating, behind the Big 12. But the league received its lowest number of bids in 31 years. For a conference built on basketball, that’s more than just a personal foul for roughing the passer.
The NCAA largely ignored the NET, which is its own assessment tool. Metrics take focus away from results, away from performance, away from wins and losses.
Based on what happened this year, you might see teams shy away from playing against tougher non-league teams early in a schedule, and instead pile on the cupcakes for 30-point drubbings because those games can improve metrics.
But they don’t improve the sport. Or sportsmanship. We continue to watch a sport and a cultural phenomenon like the NCAA Tournament slip further toward the abyss of greed and attitude in the MWE (Money Wrecks Everything) era. All because college administrators and presidents need and want their legacies protected with the building of new classrooms on campus, plus a steady stream of enrollment and funding in a time when the cost of a college education has skyrocketed.
Make me the NCAA Grand Poobah for a day. I’d tell Ken Pomeroy, author and creator of kenpom.com and a predictive metrics guru, you’re irrelevant. The NET, used as a tool for determining relative worth and success? Rip it up and start over. We lean today on too much of what could happen. We need to get back to what has happened.
∎X post of the Week I, from @John_Fanta: “For the first time in the 45-year history of the Big East Conference, a team went over 5 games over .500 in conference play and did not make the NCAA tournament. That team is Seton Hall.”
∎I don’t know about you, but if you’re a fan of Big East basketball, as much as it may pain you to do so, I’d pull for UConn, Creighton and Marquette to take no prisoners on the floor, and in your brackets.
∎Each bid is worth about $2 million to a conference. With the Big East getting spanked this year by football-playing brethren, and especially with a new Big East TV contract due to be negotiated this time next year, success on the floor is needed to breed success in the bank account, am I right?
∎ICYWW, Fox this season experienced its best ratings ever for the Big East Tournament. Up 61% over last year. Too bad no one on the selection committee watched.
∎Don’t judge PC’s first-round loss to Boston College in the NIT as a poor performance. Sure, they lost, but without banged-up Devin Carter (named an all-American this week) and Big East All-Freshman team member Rich Barron. Instead, it was used as a glimpse into the future.
And the Friars next year need shooters, shooters and more shooters.
∎Doesn’t matter the route you take, just get to the destination. PC's first-year women's head coach Erin Batth has her Friars in the WNIT, which is a start toward future success.
∎Best pre-tournament story this week? Has to be Dan Monson at Long Beach State, who was fired a week ago and was allowed to finish the season coaching in the Big West Tournament — which “The Beach” won, and the soon-to-be former coach and his team got to go dancing.
∎Did you miss it? The transfer portal also opened this week for athletes to move to other schools and opportunities, and more than 300 entered the portal on Monday — 300 women, that is. More than 600 men also went portaling in the first three days since Selection Sunday.
∎More than 1,800 athletes in basketball alone hit the portal a year ago looking for greener grass on the other side, and not all found it. Be careful what you wish for.
∎URI had five players decide to depart — Tyson Brown, Connor Dubsky, Jeremy Foumena, Rory Stewart and Brandon Weston. Brown’s Felix Kloman, Kimo Ferrari and Malachi Ndur also have made their intentions to move known.
∎Ferrari had a huge role in the Bears’ near-miss at Yale, which would have given Brown its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1986, and just the third in school history.
What a rally by Mike Martin’s team after a 6-17 start. It was as tough an ending to watch as seen around here in some time. But, make your free throws — just sayin’.
∎Other notable opening-week portalers: D.J. Davis, Butler; Rowan Brumbaugh, Georgetown; Cruz Davis, St. John’s; Kam Kraft, Xavier.
∎An SEC coach told On3.com this week that “the NIL number is often the most important part” when it comes to players choosing a school in the portal. “I do think that kids still want to win, but that number better be right.”
∎Further, from an ACC coach: “You cannot have enough money to compete in the portal.” And another SEC coach added, “In order of importance, I believe NIL is 1A and opportunity to play is 1B.”
Yeah, we’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. But then again, maybe we’re all in Kansas.
∎X post of the Week II, from a Marquette fan courtside in New York last week: “Two Dominican Friars [white robes, rosary beads] sat a row behind us. They were as passionate and pugnacious as other Providence fans. Gesturing toward me, to protest a foul against Providence, one said: ‘Ball don’t lie, but Jesuits do.’ Welcome to the Big East.”
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Big East teams left out of NCAA Tournament had the right to gripe
