Mid Major Report: Selection Committee is S-M-R-T

By Will Brinson
Cinderella hangs around during March, regardless of how top heavy the NCAA tournament is that year. Even during the Great Chalkfest of 2005, when Roy Williams was winning a ring with Matt Doherty’s players, we still had Bruce Pearl and Wisconsin Green-Bay-Odessa-Bayfield creating madness among all the painful order.
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These fairy tales, in both nickname and actual event, are what make this time of year special, if you’ll indulge a slice off the cheddar block. But, of course, there’s still nothing sexier than the term “mid-major†when it comes to college basketball—teams that are normally opposed, or unable, to schedule their fill of tough opponents fall by the BCS wayside in college football but in the roundball counterpart, they have become just as recognized as some of the bigger names from the bigger conferences, even if they are not quite seeded the same. Xavier, although the A-10 is wont to qualify as anything more than just a “sleeper†conference, has held serve on its three seed. Other than that, it’s pretty obvious why a) we continue to love mid majors and b) why they continually don’t get seeded very high. Look ma, cliché subtitles!:
Still at the Dance
Davidson (10 seed): Your heroic author’s favorite sleeper this year, the Wildcats’ seeding was hurt by losses to Carolina, UCLA and NC State early in the season. But look how having the stones to schedule the big dogs early is panning out for Stephen Curry & Co. – a very winnable Sweet 16 game against Wisconsin.
Western Kentucky (12 seed): Irony alert! (See below.) The Hilltoppers have won 20 out of 22 games including their conference tournament, knocking regular season champ Southern Alabama out of the NCAA picture. But even with near losses to Tennessee and Gonzaga, Western Kentucky got overshadowed by the aforementioned Alabamians. Now everyone regrets underrating them, including me.
Left at Midnight
Drake (5 seed): Now I can just say, “See above†instead of doing something stupid like referencing an Alanis Morrisette song, which would totally be awkward. And likely keep me from getting an invite to weekend two of TSB’s March Madness coverage. Like Hawaii in football, Drake was the favorite mid-major of 2007-08, getting tons of love, including being ranked most of the season and landing a five seed. Whoops – Western Kentucky knocked them southbound, not even giving Drake a chance to prove its big time worth.
Gonzaga (7 seed): I got flak for pointing out that the Zags stink when they’re not a sub nine seed, but honestly, isn’t it time we just start letting Mark Few start out the tournament as a 12 seed every year so the Zags can actually make a legit run? In fairness, and total irony, they did get completely blindsided by the best 10 seed in the tournament.
Butler (7 seed): And in fairness to the Bulldogs, they did everything they were supposed to do as a seven seed: win their first round game and then take two seed Tennessee to overtime before caving. They came back handily against the Vols and probably should have won the game, but there’s no reason to think that Butler was obscenely overrated.
The point of it all? Well, clearly the mid-major teams weren’t seeded correctly, with the possible exception of Butler. Drake could conceivably get a pass because Western KY is better than we thought, but if you’re going to do the leg work to get the five seed, you have to come through for that win.↵