captain rigor
still trying to decipher selex cmte head craig littlepage's logic re UC... he says kirkland's injury was a factor in UC's omission, yet chose to keep villanova a #1 despite allan ray's eye... he says the cmte favored teams from power conferences that played tough non-conference schedules, yet overlooks UC, w/a 22 S.O.S. ranking in non-conference games... he says air force will be "very hard to beat'' but really, how could he tell? They didnt play a ranked team all year... by any measure but head to head, UC had a better year than seton hall, yet SH got a 10 seed... how does utah state get in? for a better defense than i can give, check out the chart in monday's enquirer, right below my column... it would have been better if littlepage had simply stated what seems obvious to everyone but him: 9 big east teams would have been one too many, and somebody had to take the fall for that notion...
posted by Paul Daugherty at 7:35 AM
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Post a Comment*Nice article on how UC got the shaft. I am pretty sure NC State's record should be 21-9 though.
Are we all missing the point by thinking that passing on UC in the NCAA tourney had something, maybe anything, to do with the Bearcats performance on the court.
Could it have been meant as a message to the UC Board of Directors - something along the lines of... you don't dismantle a major program, just admitted to the Big East for its basketball prowess, by firing the long time coach, replacing him with someone who is not made permanent and therefore is able to recruit to try to maintain the program's elite status, then hire an Atletic Director who is clearly 3rd rate and is unable or unwilling to speak honestly with the media, or maybe even among themselves.
My guess is that was the intent but that with this University Administration it will be taken as a sign and used as an excuse that they were right all along.
Congrats to Jim Nance for showing obvious disgust with Littlepage's non-responses - hard to respond when you can't justify it - RPI? means nothing despite what selection committee says - back off your non-conference schedule UC. Andy - don't you dare take the job - even if they beg - you deserve better than this administr - and I'm a UC graduate. Embarrassing to treat a storied program like this - Oscar - where are you? Team - a truly great effort in the face of so many obtacles and adversity - you've got my respect! Go NIT!
Has anyone considered that the NCAA now owns and runs the NIT? Maybe they wanted Cincinnati, Michigan and Maryland in their NIT instead of Air Force and George Mason.
You know what the funny part of all this is? Xavier didn't even take UC's bid. According to Andy Katz, they took WESTERN KENTUCKY'S. Wrap your head around that.
Even a win over Syracuse would not have put Cincinnati in, necessarily. Syracuse's stock would have plummeted, making those 2 wins less meaningful and rendering Cincy's home loss by 19 more suspect. "7-10 over last 17 and 5-5 over last 10" doesn't look a lot better than 6-10, 5-5. Cincinnati wouldn't have necessarily taken Syracuse's spot. According to Andy Katz, the Bearcats were OFF THE BOARD with their loss. Western Kentucky, and likely Missouri State and Creighton were ahead of the Bearcats in the final pecking order. Who knows about Hofstra, Michigan, Florida State, et al. The committee weighed Kirkland's injury very heavily, virtually invalidating their OOC schedule, one of the Bearcats' big strengths.
Had Cincinnati beat Syracuse, and then been declined in favor of Western Kentucky or Hofstra, then there would have been hell to pay. But I wouldn't put it past this committee to do such a thing.
Also, why isn't there more of a stink being made in the national media about favoritism and the makeup of the committee?
Let's see here: Utah State and Air Force are the worst selections in years. Could that have anything to do with the presence of the Utah AD and WAC commissioner on the committee? Every team west of Kansas is wildly overseeded, all the way down to #12 Montana and #13 Pacific. Gee, maybe the Mountain West, WAC, and Pac-10 bloc had something to do with that!
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