Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. We’re just over a month away from Selection Sunday, so the games are taking on more importance and the bubble is starting to slowly thin out.
The first two topics go back to what was a bad night for basketball fans in the state of Kentucky. The second game of the night will be remembered more, simply because Louisville looked to have that game in hand until Duke trapped them into submission to rally and pull it out.
Earlier in the evening, LSU went to Kentucky in a battle of teams tied a game back of SEC leader Tennessee, who Kentucky will play on Saturday. LSU has dug themselves a hole often in recent times, but has found a way to win. They did the same thing this time around, getting the game-winner just before the buzzer on a controversial tip-in where the ball looked to still be in the cylinder when it was tipped. While the controversy could have wide-ranging implications such as a change to allow a little more replay, the game also served to let more of a national audience see how good LSU is in Will Wade’s second season at the helm.
Next, we look at the NCAA Tournament and who may be in the field. After much prognosticating without putting notes together, I got the feeling that there were a bunch of teams that could be in who currently have conference records below .500. In light of that, as well as a column by Joe Lunardi noting that over the past six seasons, eight such teams have made the NCAA Tournament as at-large teams and combined to win just two games, I did a little exercise. I noted the obvious one-bid conferences and then added in locks and strong should-be-in teams, then looked at who to consider from there. I had about 52 teams before I started having to think about bubble teams.
Once I did that, there were lots of teams currently below .500 in conference play – far too many. If ever there was a year for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee to finally reward winning instead of losing, this is it. I am not naive – this is not going to happen, but this is a good time to have this discussion. We shouldn’t even think about putting teams like Creighton, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska or Florida in the field. Instead, we should consider teams like Wofford, Lipscomb or Liberty (only one of them can win the Atlantic Sun),UNC Greensboro, San Francisco, or Hofstra.
That led us into a discussion of many of the mid-major conferences and the best teams there, as well as the almost certain reality: on Selection Sunday, the best of these teams will probably get the shaft and the committee will once again reward losing.
This weekend is NCAA Autism Awareness and Acceptance Weekend. Coaches across the country will be wearing the Autism Speaks puzzle piece pin during game action. Autism Speaks Coaches Powering Forward was created in 2014 by Towson head coach Pat Skerry and long-time friend Tom Herrion (assistant coach at South Florida), whose sons have been diagnosed with autism.
We hope you enjoy the podcast and share it with your fellow college basketball fans. Be sure to check in next week when we talk about college basketball once again.
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