We didn’t do it. Now we have to move on and take on a new challenge. I have confidence that if we won that game last night, we would have been in Philadelphia and we didn’t.
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That gave automatic spots to bubble teams (or less) such as Fresno State, Gonzaga and CT, while squeezing out a few spots bubble spots – even though there were two more available this season because Louisville (and Rick Pitino) and SMU (and Larry Brown) are both ineligible.
Yet in the end, those discussions, whatever they were, changed the Hawks chances.
SC did not make it, despite starting 15-0 and finishing 24-8. A weak non-conference schedule left the Gaels out of the bracket. “I’m not going to sit here and discredit other teams that got in over us, but I’m not sure what else we were supposed to do”.
SC coach Frank Martin was sitting in his team’s locker room watching Sunday’s two-hour NCAA tournament selection show on CBS when his phone rang. Teams like Monmouth only have a few opportunities to get top-100 wins. That game is Tuesday, along with a meeting of No. 16 seeds Florida Gulf Coast and Fairleigh Dickinson. The Zags’ guards held them back early in the season.
The sixth seed Norte Dame Fighting Irish could be a team to watch out for as well. A&M has Green Bay in the first round.
West Region: The Ducks are playing their best basketball late in the season and have earned themselves a one seed in the West after crushing Utah in the Pac-12 Championship, 88-57.
Maryland gets shipped more than 2,500 miles away to Spokane for its first and second round games. The committee didn’t just reward it with that top seed. Honestly the top teams will always come to the forefront too, and it will eliminate the need for all this nonsense that they use to “seed” the teams in the 4 regions in the current set up. Holy Cross enters this years tournament with a whopping record of 14-19, a LOSING record, yet Monmouth won 27 games and is forced to play in that “other” tournament.
North Carolina swept the ACC titles this year.
No. 1 seed Virginia is Michigan State’s biggest competition in the Midwest, though nearly every expert seems to be giving Tom Izzo’s team the edge.
The NCAA said in a statement Sunday that it goes to great lengths to keep the bracket from being revealed early and took its usual measures to protect it again this year.
The Aggies have a longer flight home to College Station. The Bears also lost to Georgia State as a No. 3 seed last season. Here’s why. Over the last decade, 38 of the 40 teams ranked in the top 4 of the final AP poll were #1 seeds. The SI.com Bracket Watch agreed on OR, but had Virginia as a No. 2.
This season’s bracket has been revealed, meaning the best sporting event of the year has unofficially begun. Fierce is a good word for this team, which has wins against Dayton, Georgia and IL out of conference and an impressive 29.5 record overall. Saint Mary’s, San Diego State and Monmouth were on the cut list for the committee, but teams like Syracuse and Butler are heading to the tournament.
Schools all over the country are tuning into a two-hour selection show that’s revealing the 68 teams invited to the tournament.
McGlade says she will talk to the selection committee and compare stats of all of the at-large teams.
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“Obviously our broadcast partners have made a major investment, and part of that is the exclusivity to unveiling the bracket”, Worlock was quoted as saying.
