I didn't get a chance to watch the NCAA Selection Show this afternoon while I was at work but some of the things that I feared would happen - happened. First, I want to get this out of the way before I go further. I get and I understand that there's always going to be a team or two that felt like they got a raw deal and I know that the NCAA Committee has to look at a lot of things in filling out the twenty at-large spots and that there's a lot of teams that ultimately get left on the table in the final selection process. That said, when I look at what happened this afternoon, there's a few things that leave me simply perplexed.
1. SMU - How in the blazes did the Cardinals, who finished the season at 21-6 and played UST in the MIAC Championship Game get left out? Let's look at the schedule they played and some of the vital stats of that schedule. First, they went 14-4 in one of the toughest conferences in the nation if not the toughest and finished second in regular season play and made it to the MIAC Championship Game after many, including yours truly, had picked SMU to finish in the bottom half of the conference. Second, let's take a closer look at their schedule that they played this year. They lost to tourney participant UW-Stevens Point on the Pointers home floor. They played said UST squad three times this season; twice on UST's home floor. They lost a heartbreaker to Bethel in Arden Hills while they were still ranked. The only "bad" loss on their resume was that home loss to Augsburg more than a month ago. Would it have made any difference had they won one or two more games or, more importantly, beaten one of those ranked teams such as Bethel? We'll never know now, of course but when you have to play the eighth-ranked team in the country (UST) THREE times with two of those games coming within a week of each other on the opponent's home floor just HAS to count for something. I feel badly for seniors Micaela Meredith, Bridget Pethke and Haley Trom who are most likely eating their hearts out on this disappointing day. This isn't the first time that the Cardinals have been left out of the Dance and I fear that this same movie could play again somewhere down the road.
2. Wartburg - With Luther's loss to Loras in the IIAC Championship Game at home in Decorah on Saturday, the Norse wound up getting left out while Wartburg; losers to Coe (on its home floor no less) in the IIAC quarterfinals, was a clear beneficiary of its arch-rival's misfortune and got shoved back to the front-burner and ultimately into the NCAA Tournament. Their 19-7 record isn't all that impressive at first glance but a closer look reveals that the Knights did knock off some pretty good teams along the way - including NCAA participants UW-Oshkosh and Wheaton (IL) right before the first of the year along with a win over UW-Eau Claire and one against said Luther team in the regular season finale at home in Waverly. At the same time, Wartburg also had a moment when they went into a serious funk; losing five of six games during the month of January. So, while I'm not so much against Wartburg actually receiving a bid into the Dance, I'm a little puzzled at what's actually being rewarded here. Again, they failed to make it to the IIAC Championship Game and only recorded 19 wins while teams like SMU (and GAC for that matter) recorded more. In the end, the argument will be made that Wartburg's SOS was stronger than that of either SMU or GAC because of those two key wins even though they didn't have as many wins as either SMU or GAC and failed to make it to their conference championship game.
3. UW-Whitewater - While I expected UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point to make the field along with WIAC Championship Game winner UW-Oshkosh, how in God's name UW-Whitewater got into this thing is totally beyond me. If it's based strictly on their SOS, they do have a win against NCAA Tournament participant University of New England (in the San Juan Shootout back in December) and did split with UW-River Falls during the regular season. Beyond that, they lost twice to UW-Stevens Point, lost twice to UW-Oshkosh (including a thirteen-point drubbing at home), then proceeded to lose TWICE to UW-Eau Claire - in the regular season finale and then three days later in the first round of the WIAC playoffs - both on UW-Whitewater's home floor no less. With a shaky 19-7 overall record and only 8-6 in the WIAC, I really have to wonder how they got the nod over both SMU and GAC. I'm sorry but this one really, really bothers me.
In the end, it's just really a damn shame that SMU got left out of this thing. The one thing that the changing up of the MIAC scheduling to eighteen games was (hopefully anyway) supposed to do was to give these teams an opportunity to build up their SOS outside of the conference. Sadly, that didn't happen for the Cardinals this year as they were punished for winning the games that they were supposed to win. That's why I wish it were possible for some of these MIAC schools to be able to schedule some of these powerhouse programs from either the East or West coasts or, better yet, have a MIAC-WIAC or a MIAC-IIAC Challenge that would present an opportunity for each conference to showcase its top teams in a format that would create a lot of interest. Some food for thought for the conference AD's to consider.
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