I know, I keep coming back to the non-con. That’s because I am really, really pissed about this. So I keep thinking about it, and remember other things. Like the fact that part of how the NCAA seeding committee rationalized dropping Pitt to a #3 seed and sticking them in Milwaukee to play Wisconsin in the second round was the non-con.
When the head of the committee Bowlsby, the AD from Iowa was being interviewed that was one of the first questions. His defense was Pitt’s non-conference schedule dragged them down and losing to UConn 2 out of 3 times. He ignored Pitt’s Big East schedule and winning the Big East regular season — impliedly suggesting that for Pitt, the conference regular season wasn’t important.
Every year at NCAA Tournament time, the talk always turns to who played a good non-con and who took the cheap way out. The last couple years, we have seen the seeding committee reward teams that play a tough non-con and punish the ones who take the weak route in the seedings. Pitt was all but told to toughen up the non-con or look for the same thing again. Way to pay attention.