NCAA Tournament Snubs

By now everyone knows the snubs by now. What I will look at here is who the snubs should replace in the field and where there are other issues (seeding).

Teams that should be in (no Virginia Tech here, after the win over Duke all they had to do was hold serve at home against a Boston College team that also missed the field and they were blown out)

Colorado – The Buffaloes have the biggest beef in a long time. They have three wins over five-seed Kansas St., a win over four-seed Texas and a win over 11-seed Missouri. In a year where everyone is severely flawed, there is nobody with those kinds of quality wins that got left out other than the Buffaloes. Team that should have been left out in favor of Colorado: UAB. The Blazers had no big wins in the non-conference schedule (like Colorado), but also played in a league where there were no big wins to be had. You play in a league like that, go win some non-conference games to get in.

Harvard – Beaten on a buzzer-beater in the Ivy League playoff by conference overlord Princeton, Harvard won 23 games with quality wins over fellow bubble burst teams from Colorado and Boston College. Along with that, other than a road rivalry loss to Yale, there are no bad losses on the resume. Team that should have been left out in favor of Harvard: Michigan St. The margins of victory need to matter and the Spartans were incredibly lucky to not get saddles with a nine-game losing streak this year considering the stretch where they lost six out of nine games and all three wins were home overtime wins. Combine that with having only one decent out of conference win (other than beating Washington, Sparty lost all of its high profile games just like a non-power conference team would) and you have a team that should be thankful the bubble was so weak this season.

Alabama – 12-4 in the SEC along with a quality win in the conference tournament. Yes, I know that the Crimson Tide were awful in the non-conference season, but 12 wins in the SEC got a just as flawed Kentucky team with no quality non-conference wins in three years ago with a bubble that wasn't near as soft as this one. That, and not allowing Alabama in discounts the ability for teams to improve as the season goes on and still get into the tournament. Team that should have been left out in favor of Alabama: Illinois. The Fighting Illini got significantly worse as the season went along. Different bracket prediction sites talked ad naseum over the last few weeks about Illinois doing everything they could to play their way out of the tournament. Other than a win over North Carolina (before the Tar Heels figured out what they were doing), the Illini really didn't have a ton of quality wins. They also threw in some awful losses (Illinois-Chicago and Indiana) to go along with a 6-10 finish. How is that worthy of the tournament.

Seeding snubs

The Big 12 – The Big 12 (at least those not in the state of Kansas) got screwed as far as seeding goes. Texas is under seeded as a four (probably should be a three over BYU and a case can be made for a two in Florida's spot). Texas A&M also ended up way under seeded at seven (likely should be switched with conference rival Kansas St. on the five line) as did Missouri at 11 (how does Missouri end up two seed lines lower than Illinois who they beat and have a stronger resume than). Of course Colorado missing the field entirely also is a part of this discussion.

Kentucky – How did the Wildcats end up two full seed lines below Florida. The Gators resume isn't that much better than Kentucky's and Kentucky beat Florida two out of three this season.

Richmond – The Spiders were thought to be in the tournament before the A-10 final. Their seeding indicates that is not the case and its insane. The Spiders beat Purdue and Temple along the way and were 13-3 in a top ten league. They should have been closer to a 7-10 game and possibly in the 8-9 game.