I want to talk about the bracket for a bit. Every year, somebody gets snubbed. This year is no exception. Syracuse and Drexel are the omissions that I think are particularly egregious.
Whats puzzling about Drexel is that EVERYONE says that what mid-majors have to do to make the tournament is win games on the road. Drexel won an astounding 14 road games. I don't care what conference you play in (and Drexel plays in the very respectable CAA). They went to Syracuse, to Villanova, to Creighton. They won all of those game. I know that they finished fourth in their conference, but they still had 24 wins. What's even more egregious is that although Drexel was the biggest NCAA snub, they were rewarded by the NIT with a three seed in that tournament. Meaning that the NIT thinks that there are at least eight teams in that tournament who are better (these are the same idiots who left Washington at home, although I find that kind of funny).
Syracuse is the other big omission. They went 10-6 in the Big East. I know that they have an unbalanced schedule there, but going 10-6 in the Big East is tough no matter who you play. I don't feel as bad for Syracuse as I do for Drexel because their non-conference schedule was embarrasing. Not even one non-conference road game is unacceptable in the committee's eyes. And I don't blame them too much.
Funny, though how Arkansas got in despite having a losing record in a VERY mediocre SEC West. I also thought Purdue and Illinois got very lucky.
Here is the schedule for this week:
Tuesday evening I'll give you more information than you ever wanted to know about the Miami RedHawks. Every stat, every article, and everything else I can scour up I'll give to you. Wednesday, I'll do much smaller previews for the other Pac-10 games.
Oh, and if you have to work or just want to join me for some discussion on Friday, I'll be blogging live in the open thread while watching the game. Hope you'll stop by.
GO DUCKS!!!
--Dave