By Bermuda Bob
Each and every year, the Selection Committee comes under severe scrutiny for who they admitted to the Big Dance, and who the omitted. This year, the consensus seems to be that everyone admitted deserved to be there, and those omitted were “no brainers” !!!
The problem this year is that the Selection Committee came up with a term never revealed before … They call it “scrubbing” and regardless how many times the Committee Chair, Mark Hollis of Michigan State, answered queries from CBS or ESPN Commentators, he offered an expert version of circumlocution.
It appears that this year’s Selection Committee decided, without telling the teams, that the season’s performance would outweigh the respective Conference Championship Tournaments. They obviously could are less who was injured early on – like Duke, or who was peaking going into Conference Championship Tournaments – like Duke, and thereby, the Big Dance !!!
Hollis admitted that Duke started off as a #7 Seed going into the ACC Championship Tournament, and moved up to a #4 Seed, and then finally a #2 Seed. There seemed to be no chance for Duke to have acceded to a #1 Seed as the Selection Committee had leaked that the #1 Seeds were “locked” before most finished their Conference Championship Tournaments.
If you haven’t noticed, I have chosen to use the correct name (and inference) for each Conference Championship Tournament. They are called this because winning the Conference regular season is a combination of winning Home and Away, and while often dealing with a myriad of problems, injuries, disciplinary situations, and generally being at full strength. Of course, I’m referring to Duke’s season going into the ACC Championship Tournament.
So, my question is simple: Why does the Selection Committee disregard that each and every Conference considers their Championship Tournament to reflect the Champion of their Conference for the Season. Even if a team were to win the Regular Season, they are not truly considered Champions if they did not win the Championship Tournament.
There you go … Every Conference was disregarded by the Selection Committee because they, in their infinite, but clearly flawed, wisdom “scrubbed” them from seeding the Conference Champions to reflect their earned position as Champions !!!
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim, while accepting that his team was being spurned for very good reasonings, lamented a simple, but profound request when he simply asked the Selection Committee to … just tell us what you want to see …
In Duke’s defense, here are the obvious reason for their being named a #1 Seed:
- Duke earned 8 – RPI top 25 wins …
- Duke had 13 RPI Top 50 wins …
- Duke prevailed over North Carolina 2 out of 3 times …
The questionable aspect of this “scrubbing” baloney is that the Selection Committee admitted that they never once considered the Duke – North Carolina rivalry … without a doubt, the greatest rivalry in all of sport. To quote Jay Leno:
“What were you thinking ???”
Such a ridiculous faux pas justifiably gives pause to consider my annual rant:
“Why aren’t there Basketball People on the Selection Committee ???”
If you consider the plethora of retired Head Coaches out there, I see no reason why they are not called on to apply their considerable knowledge, experience, and insight to thoughtfully picking who ought to be seeded where and why. When you need to create a term like “scrubbing,” which brings to mind things like Brillo, Mr. Clean, and Dawn, you have failed before you have begun.
So, Mr. Hollis … instead of the knee-jerk seeding of Gonzaga, who virtually played nobody of any substance except Arizona, why wasn’t Duke seeded #1 ??? Sure, North Carolina won the Regular Season, but Duke beat them twice !!! Sure, Duke had a difficult, injury ridden season that included their Head Coach, but they still survived to win their Championship Tournament in the toughest – as reflected by their mammoth number of teams in the Big Dance – conference in the nation.
You have dropped the proverbial ball once again. While you got the right inclusions, you totally screwed a number of programmes with your seeding. Just ask the Shockers of Wichita State …
Thanks for listening …
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