After the Jays' defeat two Friday's ago in St. Louis, things looked bleak for an at-large NCAA tourney bid. Still, I held out hope and managed to stay positive, with a week of basketball to play and many, many chances for other at-large teams to shoot their own collective feet.
As the week wore on, things broke the Jays way. Xavier won. Gonzaga won. San Diego State won. Nebraska won, but not too much. Florida won. And when I woke up early Sunday morning (too early, the sound of small hail pellets on the roof of my house rudely awakening me from my slumber), things were looking up.
Sports Illustrated had the Jays back in their bracket after a two-week absence. Jerry Palm still had them in. They were still out on Lunardi's ESPN Bracketology, but Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis on CBS' pregame show both had them "in". My head was spinning. But things were looking up. In fact, I was starting to have confidence they would be in -- something I had not been so sure of when I got home from the bars Saturday night.
And so I watched Florida-South Carolina with an absolute sense that if Florida could win -- thereby keeping sub-.500 South Carolina from stealing a bid -- that the Jays would be dancing. South Carolina fought back and tied it with one minute to play, and I was pissed. You'd think Creighton was playing! And when Florida won the game on a last-second shot, I yelled "You bet!", sure a bid had been secured.
Then the countdown to 5 o'clock came. My neighbor asked me who I thought Creighton would play and I told him the same thing I'd posted on the Bluejay Cafe earlier -- seed and opponent were not a concern, because beggars can't be choosers. Just get in, baby.
The Selection Show
Could there be in any more ads in this damn thing? Its excruciating enough, yet CBS drags it out 10 minutes before revealing the first region. Of course, this happens every year so I should be used to it by now.
First up, the Atlanta bracket. One Valley team -- Southern Illinois, and they're an 11 seed. Some people were upset at the low seed, but remember, SIU wasn't in until they won the automatic bid last weekend, so that's not necessarily a bad omen.
Then I saw the Oakland bracket. And Bradley. And their 13 seed. A 13? Really? But I had very little time to give this revelation the full Tom is Pissed treatment, as Alabama's name soon popped up. Alabama, a 17-12 team from the SEC whose presence seemed to hint that the power conferences were going to once again get undeserving teams in.
But as it turned out, seeing Alabama's name pop up was just the appetizer. Because in the Washington, DC bracket, the Air Force Academy appeared. The Falcons were in no one's bracket except the one that mattered. Their presence in the field literally made me temporaily insane. If I had committed a homicide at that moment, I could have used the insanity defense at my trial because...wait, Air Force? Are you kidding me?
This is an insult and an affront. As Adam Glatzyk at CollegeHoops.net put it,
"Taking injuries or eligibility issues into consideration also is now out, at least for some teams. Teams like George Washington and Creighton, one of which got shafted in its seed, the other had the insult of being told its season was worse than Air Force (again, zero top 50 wins this year, or six less than the Bluejays). It's pretty clear that, unlike what we've been told forever, conference does indeed matter. If SEC teams had the seasons that the top six MVC teams had this year, there would've been no question of their NCAA credentials. But when a league like the Valley came out of nowhere and surprised everyone, the committee soiled itself not knowing what to do. In the end, they did exactly what they said they don't do, they counted down (low seeds for Southern Illinois, Bradley) or out (Missouri State, Creighton) the Valley teams because they were Valley teams."
I'm not going to let this go. In fact, I'm getting worked up all over again. Seriously, Air Force? Air Force had one Top 50 game, a loss at Washington. They played two non-Division I teams in the non-conference schedule. 17 of their 22 D-I wins are against teams ranked outside the Top 100 of the RPI. Non conference strength of schedule is 273. 273! GOOD LORD! Oh, by the way, Air Force also lost in the first round of the MWC tournament...to 13-18 Wyoming.
Time out to cool down...
Wichita State also showed up in this bracket as a 7 seed. Good for the Shockers, first bid since 1988 for them. Just the third team for the Valley so far though. Will they only get three?
The Minneapolis bracket offered hope, considering maybe the committee decided to keep two Valley schools close to home. Right? A guy can hope, can't he?
Northern Iowa is the only one. No Missouri State, despite an RPI of 21. No Creighton. I'm still pissed about Air Force.
Jim Nantz and Billy Packer
These two assclowns started their stellar evening by revealing two at-large bubble teams early, when Billy Asspacker made the off-hand comment, "Wisconsin-Arizona is an intriguing 8-9 matchup". You're kidding me, right? He just revealed two teams from an as-yet revealed bracket? What a clown.
After the brackets were revealed, I made the grevious error of not changing the channel. Because after the break, CBS let Jim Nantz and Billy Packer interview Chairman Littlepage. This is where I absolutely hit the roof.
Nancy Nantzy: "We like the little guy as much as the rest of you, but I just keep looking at these Missouri Valley and Colonial teams, and I just can't see how they get as many bids as the ACC. Their supposedly tough non-conference schedule? (rattles off Bradley and George Mason schedules, then scoffs)"
Littlepage responds, but is cut off by an extradinarily rude Billy Packer:
Billy Asspacker: "There needs to be more thought put into this. Over the last two years, the ACC has 25 wins in the tournament, Missouri Valley has 1. They need to consider things over a five-year span. Are these Missouri Valley teams going to be in the Sweet Sixteen? Will they be in the Final Four?"
Littlepage defends his committe, but again, Nantzy cuts him off.
Asspacker: "Would Bradley win in the ACC? Would Northern Iowa? In the Big XII or the Big Ten? In the Big East? No! I'm looking at these teams and it just makes no sense to me how you can say they're better than Cincinnati, than Florida State. Ridiculous."
Littlepage starts to respond, gets out two words, "The 65..." and Nantz cuts him off. The CBS camera doesn't cut away quite soon enough, and captures Littlepage shrugging and rolling his eyes. The man had just been absolutely attacked on TV. The most unprofessional, rude treatment I've ever seen. Nantz and Packer ought to be ashamed of themselves, but I know better than that. They never went back to him for another response, but continued attacking both him and the Missouri Valley conference.
Now, I'm not exactly pleased with the work of Chairman Littlepage either, but that interview actually made me feel sorry for the guy. The way he was accosted, completely unnecessarily, for a point that made absolutely no sense in the first place? I felt bad for the guy. Yes, there were mistakes in this bracket. Its a mess. But Nantz and Packer, in their haste to rip on the Missouri Valley, ignored the things they should have been questioning. Which was the whole point of the interview.
So to sum up, they conducted themselves in a completely unprofessional manner while failing to accomplish what should have been a fairly straight-forward interview. And they still have jobs how?
Thankfully, Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis argued against them and CBS closed the show with their more level-headed, researched analysis.
And after the show, Nantz and Packer were fired for their unprofessional behavior. (Not really, but I can dream, right?)
The NIT
So the Jays get an NIT game Thursday night against the winner of Temple and Akron. Whatever. I'll break this game down later. Right now I need to finish off this 40 of Colt 45.
Missouri State
The Bears have to be absolutely suicidal. An RPI of 21 and they don't get in? In 2001 they don't get in with an RPI of 33? What did they do to piss off the committee? If I'm a Bear fan I'm considering legal options. I'm considering a BCS-style lawsuit similar to the WAC in football. What a joke.
I got my hopes up
What hurts, I think, more than anything is I did something I swore I wouldn't: I got my hopes up. And then I was crushed.
I'll get over it. Go Jays, lets at least win the damn NIT if we're gonna play in it. Lets take down John Cheney and Temple.
You bet.
