The NCAA selection committee can Gopherck themselves
It hasn’t even been a day since the NCAA selection committee set the 65-team bracket and I’m already tired of people saying “Illinois has no one to blame but themselves for not getting in.”
I call bullshit.
That generic statement can apply to every team that didn’t make it into the big dance. It’s an all-encompassing term that highlights each team’s weaknesses rather than their achievements (aka weighing losses more heavily than wins). But worst of all, it ignores the fact that the committee was clearly sending a message: Your body of work matters less than how you finish.
True, I am an Illinois alumni and I’m upset that my team didn’t get in, but I can understand a reasonable explanation as to why the Illini have been banished to college basketball purgatory the NIT based on their body of work alone.
You can literally see the moments the tourny bid died in tough losses against Bradley, Utah, and Georgia. Losing five of their last six games didn’t help either. Clearly a 19-14 record and a 75 RPI hurt as well.
But when you compare the Illini’s resume to Minnesota’s resume, things look a little different…
1.) Illinois beat Vandy (4 seed), Clemson (7 seed; on the road), Michigan State (5 seed), and Wisconsin (4 seed; twice including Wisconsin’s only loss at home all season). Minnesota’s big wins came against Butler, Wisconsin (at home), and Ohio State (which was Evan Turner’s first game since BREAKING HIS FRIGGIN BACK). The Gophers had zero quality road wins…unless you consider beating the Illini in Champaign a quality road win, which the selection committee clearly does not.
2.) In conference, the Illini only lost two games to teams not named Ohio State/Purdue/Michigan State/Wisconsin. They lost once at Northwestern and once against Minnesota, which ultimately may have sealed their fate. The Gophers, on the other hand, lost to Indiana and Michigan (twice, including a 28-point blowout).
3.) The Illini beat a fully healthy Wisconsin team in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament and took the Buckeyes into double overtime. Minnesota, on the other hand, beat a slightly above average Michigan State team and destroyed the clearly reeling Robbie Hummel-less Boilmakers before getting blown out by Ohio State in the BTT championship.
Say what you will about the likes of California and Utah State getting the nod over my alma mater, but it’s hard to compare teams with such ridiculously different schedules that are in vastly different conferences. Whatevs, I’m over it.
But if it’s true that the fifth and final Big Ten bid came down to Illinois or Minnesota, then I can’t find the logical thinking in choosing the Gophers over the Illini when you look at the body of work.
Both had bad non-conference losses, but Illinois had bigger non-conference wins. Both played average in the Big Ten, but at least Illinois never lost to bottom feeders.
If the 62-60 win in Champaign on Feb. 27 is the only thing Minnesota has over the Illini, then what’s the point of playing a regular season?
Just saying.
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Joe
19-14 vs. 21-13 and 74 vs. 64 RPI. Those two major factoids point toward Minnesota. It is hard to take Illinois when Minnesota has a better record, RPI and conference championship showing. I think a more debatable snub is Iowa State though. I mean, 15-17 in the Big XII and a top three NBA draft pick next year?! Being denied the Big Dance and the Junior High NIT is just disappointing. Not as disappointing as a 27 point loss to Minn. But still.
Those are two big factors to be certain, but I think generalizing a season to records and RPI overlook the specific team achievements (or lack thereof in the case of Minnesota).
To me, it comes down to this: Both teams had bad losses throughout the season, but Illinois had more quality wins…and on the road to boot.
I can understand why a 19-14 team should not get an at-large bid, but not when a team like Minnesota supersedes them after having an extremely average regular season and only a solid BTT tournament in which to base their bid.
In general for college basketball and football, teams get their final judgement by a committee who is biased towards the end of the season and stats. There are people who are on the bracket committee who have very little to do with playing/coaching college basketball so when it comes down to selection sunday, I think Minnesota had the edge because of the bias of the tail end of the season. Illinois faltered and Minnesota made the headlines with its BTT run. With that said, it is not the way it should be (except in some cases, like Purdue…they should be judged on their end of the season play because of the major injury they had). I also have a feeling that since Minn. outplayed their “usual big ten below average season” they got a favorable call because Ill. played to, if not below, their “usual big ten average to above average season”. The bar is set higher for Ill. because they have an annually better team. Maybe Minn. got thrown a bone because they usually suck real bad.