We’ve got our field of 68 for the NCAA tournament. Here’s a printable tournament bracket, just for you.
2017 NCAA tournament snubs: Syracuse headlines list of March Madness misses
The Orange landed on the wrong side of the bubble.
This is a joyous time for the teams that landed on the inside of the bubble — and a painful one for those whose noses wound up pressed against the glass. There are, as ever, a lot of those teams.
The tournament’s selection committee snubbed a few teams that had strong cases, in particular. That’s not to say these teams should have made the tournament, but they at least made decent arguments before falling short.
Syracuse (18-14, 10-8 ACC)
It’s a bit of a surprise that the Orange didn’t sneak in, but few are going to miss them. This wasn’t an enjoyable Jim Boeheim team, and it didn’t have the feel of one that’d mount a deep March run. But the Orange did have three excellent wins against Duke, Virginia, and Florida State, and being in the ACC seemed like it’d be enough to get them over the top. But it didn’t, and ‘Cuse is out for the second time in three years.
It seemed likely that Syracuse would make the field, right up until it didn’t. The inclusion of Kansas State — a team with a similar power-conference resume — made it clear that the Orange wouldn’t be included. The Wildcats beat the likes of West Virginia and Baylor (twice). Is that better than what Syracuse did (and who Syracuse beat?) I don’t know, but it’s close, and the Orange shouldn’t have left it to chance.
The case against ‘Cuse, from Georgetown blog Casual Hoya:
Sure, they are 10-8 in the ACC; but when you take a closer look at the unbalanced scheduling you’ll notice that they played BC, Georgia Tech, Miami, Louisville and Pitt twice. And they actually lost to BC too. They only played 1 of the top 5 ACC teams twice. And they lost both of those games to Louisville. Sad!
Look at their conference strength of schedule. Out of 15 ACC teams, Syracuse had the 14th toughest schedule. So that 10-8 conference record is a bit misleading.
The only thing that helps them is that they have six top 50 RPI wins. That’s it. That is basically the only argument in their favor. And one of those top 50 wins was against Monmouth. MONMOUTH.
Illinois State (27-6, 17-1 Missouri Valley)
In a world that was kinder to mid-major at-large teams, the Redbirds would’ve made the field. Alas, that’s not this world, so they finished on the outside looking in. ISU finished tied for first place in the MVC with Wichita State, but the Shockers trounced the Redbirds in the conference tournament title game. The Redbirds didn’t beat anyone from the power conferences, and that’ll go on their death certificate.
Monmouth (27-6, 18-2 MAAC)
The Hawks are the perfect illustration of the downside of conference tournaments. They won their league title outright by four games, and they were miles better than anybody else in the MAAC. But the MAAC isn’t good enough to be a two-bid league in this climate, and it was clear that the Hawks weren’t making the field after they bowed out to Siena in the league tournament. That’s a shame because they’re clearly the best team their conference had to offer.
Texas-Arlington (25-8, 14-4 Sun Belt)
The Mavericks’ season was a bit of a tragedy, not unlike Monmouth’s. The Mavericks won the Sun Belt by two games in the regular season, and they looked ready for a redemption season after an injury to leading scorer Kevin Hervey derailed them last year. Hervey bounced back and led the Mavs through the Sun Belt, and it looked like this program would reach its first Big Dance since 2008 (and its second ever). A surprising 19-point loss to Texas State in the league tournament ended that dream.
The selection committee made something clear this year, again.
When things are close to equal, committee members are more interested in .500-ish power-conference teams than upstarts from mid-major leagues.
In many cases, those decisions align with efficiency numbers that suggest the power teams really were better than the ones they beat out. This isn’t an overt criticism as much as an observation that’s become clear over the last few years.
Still, it’s a shame to see so many mid-majors that had strong cases missing out because of conference tournament horror stories. This listing didn’t even include Belmont, which cruised through the Ohio Valley before its own tournament nightmare.
Stories like the Bruins’ are par for the course, and there’s no reason to expect they’ll stop unfolding year after year.
The full bracket:
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