And Now, Time for Some College Basketball

March 17, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Monday meanderings: The NCAA basketball tournament field is complete. All 68 teams. The National Invitation Tournament field is complete. All 32 teams. The Collegeinsider.com tournament field is complete. However many teams are in that (mostly schools many of us would have trouble locating on a map). Are there any deserving teams that won’t be playing a tournament game?

Amanda is captain of the University of Florida dance team. The Gators are top-seeded in the NCAA basketball tourney.

* Michigan State defeated Michigan for the Big Ten Conference tournament title. And in the process likely dropped Michigan from being a No. 1 seed. Instead Virginia, which defeated Duke for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title, received a No. 1. All of which is good (well, unless you’re a Michigan fan) because it makes winning — or losing — in a conference tournament matter. Which seemingly is not the way things usually go. Conference tournaments tend to be held to make money (nothing wrong with that) and have an on-the-bubble team get off the bubble and into the NCAA tourney.

* Iowa is playing a first-round game against Tennessee. Didn’t those games used to be called play-in games? Four games to determine No. 16 seeds. It doesn’t get much more special than that.

* Anyone upset about the seeding process ought to demand the NCAA go to a much simpler system: Pick teams out of a hat. That way no one in charge need to worry about mistreating perennial powers or conferences that might be having down years.

* Not being particularly well-versed in the world of college basketball (as well as numerous other spheres), your humble correspondent wonders whether undefeated Wichita State has a seemingly difficult path to a championship by accident or by design. To survive the Midwest Regional, the Shockers likely will have to defeat Kentucky, Louisville and either Duke or Michigan. Here’s hoping the Shockers make it at least to the Final Four.

* If ever there was a case for feeling bad about a team not making the NCAA field, it just might be Southern Methodist University with 73-year-old coach Larry Brown. SMU had a good season (23-9). Who knows if the Mustangs will be as good next season? Or, given Brown’s track record, whether he will move on before then. As a consolation prize, the Mustangs are the top seed in the NIT. For what it’s worth. Guessing not much to the folks in Dallas.

* Remember when the NIT used to be much more geographical in its early matchups. Illinois travels to Boston University for a first-round game. Once upon a time, the Illini would have traveled to face Wisconsin-Green Bay. Instead Belmont is playing at Green Bay. Belmont is located in Nashville, Tenn. Maybe someone in the NIT hierarchy runs a travel service or something.

***

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the pharmaceutically enhanced efforts of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):