11 Mar14 - Frenzy

Volume XV, No. 19 - 11 Mar 14

Frenzy

Championship Week is always frenetic and this year was no exception. With bids on the line decided by buzzer-beaters (and refs going AWOL at the end of games), it's no wonder we've wound up with a weakened field (in an already weakened season).

Hardly any teams looked good all the way through their conference tournaments.
     Duke [in Greensboro] rolled to the ACC crown past Maryland (@87-71), Virginia Tech (@77-63) and North Carolina (@75-@58) ... and they get two more free passes with a cushy NCAA POD in Charlotte. [Insert Perennial Rant #87 here.] Kentucky, freed from having to play in hostile environments now that the Wildcat Nation can turn every venue into a UK "home game" -- [The SEC tournament crowd was 85% pro-Kentucky by text message vote.] -- handled "M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-hump back-hump back-I" (@75-66), overrated Alabama (@72-58) and overseeded Florida (@70-54) to take the SEC crown in Atlanta ... and Tampa will be a "home crowd" as well. [Not the same situation as Duke. Kentucky's "home crowd advantage" is due to the loyalty and willingness to travel by its fan base; for Duke and North Carolina, it's preferential close-to-home Pod placement by the NCAA year after year.] But even those two stand-out performances had help from supportive crowds.
     Pittsburgh lost right away in the Big East (albeit on the last play to Connecticut and the splendid bKemba Walker); Ohio State needed overtime to beat [8]Northwestern (67-61(OT)) in the Big 10; Kansas did handle [2]Texas @85-73 in the Big 12 final, but it had to escape @63-62 over [9]Oklahoma State earlier; Arizona lost the Pac-10 final 75-77(OT) on a buzzer-beater by Washington's pIsaiah Thomas. Yes, San Diego State paid back BYU 72-54 in the Mountain West final, but not before gD.J. Gay's layup saved the day 74-@72 against host [3]UNLV. Utah State squeaked by [8]San Jose State 58-54 in the WAC; George Mason was routed by host [4]VCU 63-@79 in the Colonial; Gonzaga did win the rubber match with St. Mary's (75-63) in the West Coast final (but not before escaping 71-67 against [3]San Francisco).
     Only Butler (an impressive 59-@44 winner over host [1a]Wisconsin(Milwaukee) in the Horizon final), Belmont (handy winners in the dominated Atlantic Sun) and Oakland (even easier winners in the Summit tourney) took on all comers without showing vulnerability.
     Particular no-shows: Purdue, Wisconsin, Kansas State, UCLA, UAB (and Utah Valley) all lost right away in their tournaments.
     So we've got the proverbial "WIDE OPEN TOURNAMENT FIELD" this year moreso than ever.

Star of Stars from last week's play is a no-brainer. bKemba Walker's phenomenal run through the Big East tournament -- 26p6b4a for 5 games in 5 days as Connecticut took the crown -- re-elevated him to Player of the Year status. You can't fault gJimmer Fredette individually for teammates' injury and suspension that have demoted the quality of Brigham Young in the last two weeks -- he still had 52p against New Mexico and 30p against San Diego State. So proclaim them Co-Players Of The Year.

Weird "might have been" endings: Florida State's would-be game-winner over Virginia Tech in the ACC quarterfinal was late by 0.1 second. Georgia's would-be game-winner against Alabama in the SEC quarterfinal was disallowed because the Dogs' coach Mark Fox called for a timeout before the shot was released (and then they lost in OT). (But the losers won and the winners lost: FlaSt and UGa got NCAA bids; VaTech and Bama didn't.) It's time to retire when you miss a blatant travel and :01.7 seconds left on the clock and declare the game over, as the refs did in St. John's 65-63 win over Rutgers in the Big East 16s. (Upon further review, they didn't work the rest of the tournament.)

The Ivy League got the game it deserved after all the hype that had built up surrounding "Harvard-vs-Princeton-at-Yale" -- (you can't imagine how all those in tweed were a-twitter over that scenario) -- as the Tigers' gDouglas Davis sank the game-winner for PU in a 63-62 nail-biter. Rivals Akron and Kent State nearly had a rumble after their Mid-American title game finished 66-65(OT) for the Zips. Boston University sank Stony Brook @56-52 on two free throws by John Holland in the America East final. Solomon Bozeman's three-pointer sank North Texas 64-63 for the Sun Belt's automatic bid.

One way to measure the strength of the field is to count up the Tito champions vs. the bid-stealing spoilers and Jack Dawsons who are attending the Dance under false pretenses. Here we go:

TiTo	Spoiler	Jack Dawson
BIG 10: [1]+2 Ohio State MWC: [1b]+3 San Diego State BIG 12: [1] @Kansas WAC: [1]+5 Utah State A-SUN: [1]+3 Belmont WCC: [1b] Gonzaga HORIZ: [1b] Butler@ SUMMIT: [1]+4 Oakland NEC: @[1]+3 Long Island IVY: [1a]+4 Princeton PAT: @[1]+2 Bucknell SKY: @[1] Northern Colorado SOCON: [1b]+2 Wofford	C-USA: [4]Memphis	OVC: "[1] Murray State" ([2a] Morehead State) MEAC: "[1]+2 Bethune-Cookman" (2-[2a] Hampton) AMER E: "[1] Vermont" ([2]Boston University) MAC: "[1/1E] @Kent State" ([5b] @Akron) BIG W: "[1]+4 @Long Beach State" ([4b]UC-Santa Barbara@) MAAC: "@[1]+2 Fairfield" ([4]St. Peter's@) MVC: "[1] @Missouri State" ([3]Indiana State@) BIG S: "@[1]+3 Coastal Carolina" ([3]UNC-Asheville@) SLAND: "[1]McNeese State" ([5c] @TX-San Antonio) [GREAT W: "@[1]+2 UT Valley" ({North Dakota})] SWAC: "[1]+4 Texas Southern" (Alabama State) SUN B: "[1/1E]+2 Florida Atlantic" ([4bW]@AR-Little Rock)

Duke(ACC/North Carolina), Kentucky(SEC/Florida), Connecticut(Big East/Pittsburgh), Washington(Pac-10/Arizona), Old Dominion(Colonial/George Mason) and Richmond(Atlantic 10/Xavier) didn't steal any bids by winning their conference tournaments instead of the regular season titleholder -- all of those teams were safely in regardless of those results. Only one team, Memphis, could rightfully be called a "bid-stealing spoiler" in that it wouldn't have received a bid had it not won the Conference USA tournament (and the league likely wouldn't have received two bids had regular season champ UAB gone TiTo). But giving that league two bids isn't Memphis' fault -- blame the NCAA Selection Committee because an at-large bid to UAB was a shock to most everyone. All I can chalk that up to is a political pick not wanting to upset 12 Mid-Major schools versus one overlooked one (e.g., St. Mary's, whom I'd have taken instead). 11 out of 21 1BC bids went to Jack Dawson teams (and 7 of those were at the expense of gap regular season champs, mostly disappointingly: Coastal Carolina(Big South) and Fairfield(Metro Atlantic)).

The NCAA picked a bad year to expand the field by three more at-large bids ... and then, the Selection Committee made bizarre, unexplainable choices with the last few "bubble" spots. Can't make an argument for UAB to have gotten a bid and St. Mary's not to have. VCU-yes/Virginia Tech-no and Georgia-yes/Alabama-no probably sting but they're less problematic for me. The nice wins don't outweigh the terrible losses in USC's case in my book; same for Penn State. I'd rather have seen Missouri State or Colorado instead of those two.
     As far as seeding, I don't get Florida as a #2 and Texas as a #4; don't get Richmond and Utah State as #12 or Belmont as #13. Those are all way off in my book.

-- Ron

Key games this week:

NCAA

Tuesday:

1stRd/128s FIRST FOUR @ Dayton OH

• [E12+]Clemson v [E12+]UAB
• [SE16+]UNC-Asheville v [SE16+]AR-Little Rock

Wednesday:

1stRd/128s FIRST FOUR @ Dayton OH

• [SW11+]VCU v [SW11+]USC
• [E16+]TX-San Antonio v [E16+]Alabama St

Thursday, Saturday:

2ndRd/64s POD @ Washington DC

• [SE1]Pittsburgh v [SE16+]UNCAsheville/[SE16+]ARLittleRock
• [SE8]Butler v [SE9]Old Dominion
• [W3]Connecticut v [W14]Bucknell
• [W6]Cincinnati v [W11]Missouri

2ndRd/64s POD @ Tucson AZ

• [W2]San Diego St v [W15]No Colorado
• [W7]Temple v [W10]Penn St (PA)
• [SE4]Wisconsin v [SE13]Belmont
• [SE5]Kansas St v [SE12]Utah St

2ndRd/64s POD @ Tampa FL

• [SE2]Florida v [SE15]UC-Santa Barbara
• [SE7]UCLA v [SE10]Wofford
• [E4]@Kentucky v [E13]Princeton
• [E5]W Virginia v [E12+]Clemson/[E12+]UAB

2ndRd/64s POD @ Denver CO

• [SE3]BYU v [SE14]Wofford
• [SE6]St John's v [SE11]Gonzaga
• [SW4]Louisville v [SW13]Morehead St
• [SW5]Vanderbilt v [SW12]Richmond

Friday, Sunday:

1stRd/64s POD @ Cleveland OH

• [E1]@Ohio St v [E16+]TXSanAntonio/[E16+]AlabamaSt
• [E8]Geo Mason v [E9]Villanova
• [E3]Syracuse v [E14]Indiana St
• [E6]@Xavier v [11]Marquette

1stRd/64s POD @ Tulsa OK

• [SW1]Kansas v [SW16]Boston U
• [SW8]UNLV v [SW9]Illinois
• [W4]Texas v [W13]Oakland
• [W5]Arizona v [W12]Memphis

1stRd/64s POD @ Charlotte NC

• [W1]@Duke v [W16]Hampton
• [W8]Michigan v [W9]Tennessee
• [E2]@N Carolina v [E15]Long Island
• [E7]Temple v [E10]Penn St (PA)

1stRd/64s POD @ Chicago IL

• [SW2]Notre Dame v [SW15]Akron (BG)
• [SW7]Texas A&M v [SW10]Florida St
• [SW3]Purdue v [SW14]St Peter's
• [SW6]Georgetown v [SW11+]VCU/[SW11+]USC

NIT

Tuesday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ (s1)Alabama v (s8)Co Carolina
• (e1)Boston Col @ (e8)McNeese St
• @ (w2)St Mary's v (w7)Kent St
• @ (m2)Cleveland St v (m7)Vermont
• @ (s3)Missouri St v (s6)Murray St
• @ (w3)Colorado St v (w6)Fairfield
• @ (e3)Oklahoma St v (e6)Harvard
• (m3)Dayton @ (m6)Col of Charleston
• @ (s4)New Mexico v (s5)UTEP

Wednesday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ (m1)Virginia Tech v (m8)Bethune-Cookman
• @ (w1)Colorado v Texas So
• @ (e2)Washington St v (e7)Long Beach St
• @ (s2)Miami-FL v (s7)FL Atlantic (FL)
• @ (m4)Wichita St v (m5)Nebraska
• @ (w4)California v (w5)Mississippi
• @ (e4)Northwestern v (e5)WI-Milwaukee

Friday-Monday week:

16s on-campus

• @(m1)VirginiaTech/(m8)BethuneCookman v @(m4)WichitaSt/(m5)Nebraska
• @(m2)ClevelandSt/(m7)Vermont v (m3)Dayton/@(m6)ColofCharleston
• @{s1)Alabama/(s8)CoCarolina v @(s4)NewMexico/(s5)UTEP
• @(s2)MiamiFL/(s7)FLAtlantic v @(s3)MissouriSt/(s6)MurraySt
• @(w1)Colorado/TexasSo v @(w4)California/(w5)Mississippi
• @(w2)StMarys/(w7)KentSt v @(w3)ColoradoSt/(w6)Fairfield
• (e1)BostonCol/@(e8)McNeeseSt v @(e4)Northwestern/(e5)WIMilwaukee
• @(e2)WashingtonSt/(e7)LongBeachSt v @(e3)OklahomaSt/(e6)Harvard

Tuesday-Wednesday week:

Qtrs on-campus

Tue 29 Mar, Thu 31 Mar

Semis,Final @ New York NY /MSG/

• (m/Virginia Tech) v (e/Boston Col)
• (s/Alabama) v (w/olorado)

CBI

Tuesday:

1stRd/16s on-campus

• (sA): @ Davidson v James Madison
• (sB): @ Creighton v San Jose St
• (mA): @ Boise St v Austin Peay
• (mB): @ Evansville v Hofstra

Wednesday:

1stRd/16s on-campus

• (wA): @ Montana v Duquesne
• (wB): @ Oregon v Weber St
• (eA): @ C Florida v St Bonaventure
• (eB): @ Rhode Island v Miami-OH

Monday week:

Qtrs on-campus (by region)

• (s): @Davidson/JamesMadison v @Creighton/SanJoseSt
• (w): @Montana/Duquesne v @Oregon/WeberSt
• (e): @CFlorida/StBonaventure v @RhodeIsland/MiamiOH
• (m): @BoiseSt/AustinPeay v @Evansville/Hofstra

Wednesday week:

Semis on-campus (re-seeded)

Mon 28 Mar, Wed 30 Mar, (if necessary: Fri 1 Apr):

Finals on-campus (Best of 3)

CIT

Monday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ Quinnipiac v Buffalo

Tuesday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ E Tennessee St v Furman
• @ Air Force v {N Dakota}
• @ Santa Clara v No Arizona
• @ Hawaii v Portland
• @ No Iowa v Rider
• @ E Carolina v Jacksonville
• @ Marshall v Ohio U

Wednesday:

1stRd/32s on-campus

• @ Valparaiso v Iona
• @ SMU v Oral Roberts
• @ San Francisco v Idaho
• @ We Michigan v Tennessee Tech

Friday-Saturday:

2ndRd/16s on-campus

Monday-Tuesday week:

Qtrs on-campus [re-seeded]
(4 first-round winners will receive a bye directly into the quarters.)

Friday week:

Semis on-campus [re-seeded]

Wed 30 Mar

Final on-campus