As I said the night of the selection show, Nantz and Packer were idiots for their arguing with Craig Littlepage of the NCAA Selection Committee equating the MVC with the ACC and such based on number of teams getting in without looking at the where in the seedings.
Well, with the Selection Committee taking a righteous beating all of Monday for more substantive reasons, Littlepage is on the defensive. Mainly by going after the easy, dumb arguments from Nantz and Packer (rather than the real arguments for the Committee’s incompetence).
And Littlepage said the reason teams from the traditional power conferences fare better in the tournament is that they typically get higher seeds.
“He may have an opinion about that or the two of them may have an opinion about that, and they are certainly free to have those opinions and express those opinions,” Littlepage said of Packer and his CBS broadcast partner, Jim Nantz. “But to look at this in terms of the partnership, you would hope there would be a little better understanding of what it is that we do and an accurate reflection of the facts as they know them to be. Facts, instead of opinions, would be helpful.”
But there were times Monday that Littlepage almost seemed to plead for empathy.
Empathy? Bear with us? What?
Another member of the selection committee was Kent State AD Laing Kennedy. He of course defended the job.
Kennedy, who returned to Kent on Monday after being in selection committee meetings since last Wednesday, said he has not compared the bracket to years past, but sensed nothing was out of norm with the final 65.
“I don’t know how it stacks up, but I would believe it would be about the same [number of majors and midmajors],” Kennedy said. “But I have to tell you, the effort put in all year, not just this [past] weekend, I’ve never been involved with a group so committed to the task.
“We wanted the best 34 at-large teams, and we hammered that every day, team by team by team. That [Nance and Packer assumption] is not a fair assessment.”
I’m getting a feeling that there’s a lot more dissatisfaction and annoyance with the selections than in past years. It seems like the controversy is going to last a few extra days. Maybe it’s because the landscape of college basketball is “flatter” — less variance between more teams — than in the past makes for more questions.
I also think that with all of the information, numbers, stats and analysis most believed they had the system understood and how things worked. Then the committee goes and behind closed doors makes their choices. The transparency of the system is abruptly cut-off and things don’t work out the way everyone was expecting. From questionable seedings to leaving certain teams out. There was a lack of consistency in how they made decsions. Strength of schedule, RPI, last 10 games, non-con. They were all applied inconsistently and without any explanation.
The Missouri Valley Conference seems to have figured out the system better than most mid-major conferences, and even they feel cheated by not having Missouri State make it.
Kent’s AD wants the MAC to have a similar plan.
Kennedy said, collectively, MAC schools should take a stand against major conferences and demand that they play home-and-away series.
Kennedy plans to discuss this, and more, with MAC administrators and coaches during May conference meetings.
Currently, if MAC schools want to play North Carolina, Kansas, Florida or other elite programs, they have to hit the road.
Recently, the Flashes discussed playing Duke. When the question arose if the Blue Devils would play at the M.A.C. Center in Kent, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski responded: “Are you kidding? I’ve done my homework. I’ll play you, but not there.”
That same strategy allowed Syracuse to play 12 of its first 15 games at the Carrier Dome (Two games were played at Madison Square Garden). The Orangemen went 13-2 during the span, including a 78-66 win against KSU on Dec. 30.
Kennedy said scheduling the right top-50 teams is vital.
Looks like Pitt won’t be playing any MAC schools in its non-con for a while. That will be interesting because it potentially could reduce the pool of teams willing to travel for games. Driving up the guaranteed price and convincing more schools to schedule a little tougher if they have to do a home-and-home. I mean if you are going to do one would you choose to do it with another major conference team or a mid-major?
The article also mentions that Kent State will offer Christian a contract extension that would make him the highest paid coach of the MAC. (Which would probably still be cheaper than the lowest paid Big East coach.)
