It’s the middle of March and you know what that means! It’s time for College Basketball to step foot on center stage, not just in the sports world but all across America. Businesses lose money this week because too many employees are paying attention to their office pools rather than the work they’re paid to do. Day one got off to a wild start, but it shouldn’t have been as wild as it looked on paper – let’s get down to the details.
Like every sport, and really everything that happens in general, college basketball is evolving. For some reason though the selection committee is living in the past, is stuck listening to the general sports media, or just not watching games (aka not doing their job). Basically, like every bloated system they’re doing the bare minimum and getting all the rewards for it.
Yesterday tied last years number for upsets with 6 – but there were easily another 4 games that could have been upsets as well.
The Upsets:
#9 Memphis over #8 Boise State
There was no reason to rank Memphis at #9 they were a top half team. Sure they had a bad start to the season, but they finished hot and won the competitive AAC over a good Houston team. A number 9 seed is a place for an inconsistent team, Memphis was anything but – they were consistently bad at the start and consistently good at the end of the season. The should have been a #7, Boise State just got a bad draw.
#12 New Mexico State over #5 UConn
Clearly the committee doesn’t pay attention to small conferences or anything out west. New Mexico State dominated everyone they played – even relatively good teams that would have made the tournament if it weren’t for the Aggies (I’m looking at you Grand Canyon). UConn probably was ranked a bit high, but even if they re-ranked these two it would likely end up as a 6-11 or a 7-10. So the matchup was right, the numbers were wrong.
#15 St Peters over #2 Kentucky
Let’s keep this simple. Kentucky was overrated. Sure they picked it up in the later half of the season, but I don’t like when two teams from the same conference get a high seed. Auburn was clearly the better team. Kentucky should have been a #3 at best. St Peters probably had the right ranking – but the people who were really shocked by this win haven’t watched the Peacocks play this year. They were dominant in a competitive MAAC conference. There were around 4 teams that could have won the conference and the Peacocks got hot at the right time – then continued it through to last night.
#12 Richmond over #5 Iowa
Speaking of getting hot at the right time, Richmond, one of the high profile win-to-get in teams from last week’s conference tournaments wont 4 games in 4 days to join the dance. Sure they probably benefited from the COVID year rule the NCAA put in place, they have 20 players after all. Iowa was a hot shooting team that picked it up, but never really impressed me over the course of the season. Richmond just used the veteran leadership to embrace their opportunity
#9 Creighton over #8 San Diego State
Is a #9 over a #8 an upset? This game was really the epitome of that question. Evenly matched, it even went to OT to decide the game.
#11 Michigan over #6 Colorado State
Colorado State may have gotten a little too much credit. Michigan is the team that doesn’t belong, but makes the run. They should have been the #12 seed for the first four instead of Indiana but whatever. Not much else to say on this one.
The Nearly Upset:
#4 Arkansas over #13 Vermont
Arkansas struggled in the SEC at times this year. They either looked great or looked average. Vermont dominated their conference. They were better than everyone in their conference and never played down to their competition. They probably should have been ranked higher, but they made what they could of the opportunity when shots don’t fall.
#7 Murray State over #10 San Francisco
Let’s call this the Ja Morant make-up call. Murray State, for a small school, got a pretty favorable ranking. They had a great season though and earned it. San Francisco benefited from a solid season in Gonzaga’s conference. Nothing really to complain about other than it would have been nice to see these two face off against a Big Ten team, an SEC team, or another major conference team.
#4 UCLA over #13 Akrony
Akron is good, the MAC was pretty good this year too. UCLA looked asleep most the game. But then again they’ve been inconsistent this year too. The Bruins win made my bracket happy, but the part of me that loves chaos was sad the upset didn’t happen.
#4 Providence over #13 South Dakota State
Providence has a tendency to play games close and this was no different. They might have a slightly favorable #4 ranking, but you’re splitting hairs at that point since the Big East was a top conference this year. The real shame is the fact that South Dakota State rattled off 20 consecutive wins and only got a #13 seed. I’m not saying they should have been higher than a #10 seed but a #11 or #12 would have been a nice reward for an historic season.
Well those were the games. But let’s get into the bigger problem. The ranking system. Let’s start with the first 4 – those games should theoretically be a play-in game. So should only be for the #16 seeds. The problem with this is no one will watch those games and the NCAA wants to make money on those games. So we get a defacto floor for the power conferences. They can’t get a ranking any lower than 12. The problem is they should be. And more often than you think. On the other end of things – the #14-#16 seeds the tournament committee never watches games those teams play. So you’ve got just as good of a chance to play as a #16 as you do to be a #14. Norfolk State dominated their conference, but that only gave them the privilege to play the defending national champions. That’s not even mentioning the games we already discussed above.
I’ve already alluded to this, but like most things the improvement has been corrupted by money. The smaller schools are getting better, younger players are realizing they don’t need to go to a power conference to make it to the next level. Plus relaxed transfer rules and NIL are areas we haven’t seen long enough to really determine how they balance the power. The point is, basketball only requires a couple star players or a team buying into the coach’s system. It doesn’t need to go through the conferences that have the TV deals. Plus, most conferences have a streaming deal so you can watch every game. The committee is just too lazy to do their homework. They don’t need to watch all the games, just watch more than just the top conference games. Go where the upstarts are and balance the rankings. Less upsets will happen, but you’ll end up with more better games like the 9 from yesterday rather than the four blowouts in the other games.