Bubbles, Sitting on the Fence and Brackets Part 1: 1985-89

We begin our review of the bubble over the years with the first five years of the 64-team NCAA Tournament era, 1985-89. Among the stories: the first big snub (and blow-up) in the expanded tourney era, a 14 seed at-large team nearly making the Elite 8, and a conference going from a national champion one year to no team in the Big Dance at all the next.
Bubbles, Sitting on the Fence and Brackets introduction

1985
Last in: 11 Boston College (18-10), 11 UTEP (21-9), 12 Kentucky (16-12), 12 Miami (Ohio) (20-10), 12 Old Dominion (19-11), 12 Pittsburgh (17-11), 13 Iowa State (21-12)
Left out: Alcorn State (23-6), Creighton (20-12), Florida (18-11), Fresno State (21-8), Marquette (18-10), Missouri (18-13), Montana (22-7), Tennessee-Chattanooga (22-7), West Virginia (20-8)
Multi-bid conferences: 13

It is bewildering in hindsight to think expansion of the NCAA Tournament to 64 teams came with decidedly mixed reaction at the time. Big East commissioner and noted hoops visionary Dave Gavitt was against it. Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps and Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke were on record as preferring the tourney go back to 32 teams.

Despite such opinions, the NCAA added 11 more teams to its Division I championship from the 53 in 1984, and the first-ever 64-team field saw 13 multi-bid conferences in all, a total including the independent ranks putting three teams in the draw. That actually was down one from 14 multi-bid leagues the year before but was one more than the 12 in 1983. That type of diversity in the field would largely hold constant well into the 1990s.

Just as there are today, there were some less-than scintillating records getting in at-large, but there also was variety with six different conferences represented among the seven lowest-seeded teams. The final in by seed included two Big East teams (Boston College and Pittsburgh) at 18-10 and 17-11, respectively; Kentucky at just 16-12 as the fifth SEC team with a rare 12 seed, its lowest in the seeding era; Old Dominion giving the Sun Belt three bids, a figure the conference would actually exceed the next year; and a Mid-American Conference at-large for Miami (Ohio), even as the then-Redskins did not win the regular season title and posted what some would consider a fairly middling 20-10 record. To this day, it’s one of just five at-large bids for the MAC since the tourney expanded to 64 teams; four of those have gone to Miami. Iowa State also was the purported last team in the field all the way down at a 13 seed.

Committee politics were a frequent accusation in these times-from coaches, who also were unafraid to share their thoughts on some of the schools getting in, too. Kentucky’s selection was questioned by Florida coach Norm Sloan, whose Gators missed out on their first-ever bid with an 18-11 record and two wins in three games against the Wildcats that year. In an Associated Press story from the time, Sloan said “I’m not opposed to Kentucky, but you have to question how they can get in with a record like they have.” Sloan also was quoted in the Tampa Tribune saying: “Pitt doesn’t deserve to be in there, neither does Boston College. I don’t care what (committee chair and Sun Belt commissioner Vic) Bubas says…the Sun Belt has three teams in the tournament and the Big East has six and they’ve both got people on the committee. Don’t tell me they are not playing games.”

Virginia athletic director and committee member Dick Schultz did vouch for Kentucky publically, saying the Wildcats got in “because of their strength of schedule. It was brutal.” Out of conference, UK played Purdue, SMU, Kansas and North Carolina State-every one of them a 6 seed or better in the NCAAs, though the Cats won just one of them-plus NIT clubs Cincinnati, Indiana and Louisville.

Interestingly, another on the committee was West Virginia athletic director Fred Schaus, and it so happened the Mountaineers were the most controversial omission this year. Head coach Gale Catlett let loose after WVU was snubbed despite 20 wins and the Atlantic 10 regular season title, saying he was “shocked and extremely hurt for our players and our conference.” More Catlett: “When you win the regular season championship with a 16-2 record in a conference ranked as the eighth-toughest in the country by Basketball Weekly (a popular magazine covering the sport at the time), you win eight of your last nine games, 16 of your last 19 and play the 11th-toughest non-conference schedule in the country ranked by NCAA News last week…you win 20 games and participate in the last three NCAA Tournaments and not get an NCAA bid, then the NCAA’s selection committee has made a tremendous error.”

West Virginia was stunned by eighth-seeded Duquesne in its Atlantic 10 tourney quarterfinal, and its 4-5 mark in non-conference play included wins over non-Division I’s Indiana (Pa.) and Ohio Wesleyan, plus a 19-point loss at…Pittsburgh, one of the last teams to get in. Notable is that West Virginia did finish with a 52 RPI that was 16 spots better than Iowa State. (Yes, even then the RPI as a sorting and grouping tool was already being used) The teams also played comparably ranked schedules, but the Cyclones did notch an advantage with an opponent’s strength of schedule of 40, far better than WVU’s 112. What seemed to put ISU over the top was two late season wins over eventual NCAA 3 seed Kansas, one coming in the Big 8 semifinals that put the Cyclones in the tourney final, where they lost by two points to top seed and eventual NCAA 1 seed Oklahoma. Incidentally, West Virginia would actually come very close to leaving the Atlantic 10 after that season, due to frustration about the snub, before reconsidering and remaining for another 10 years.

Other than West Virginia, Marquette maybe was the most noticeable team left out, as it held wins over Dayton, DePaul, and a Loyola (Ill.) team that earned a 4 seed and made the Sweet 16 in the NCAAs. In irony of all in hindsight, a loss to a team called Gonzaga was the biggest blight on the Warriors’ resume. Missouri defeated top 10 teams North Carolina and Kansas in the regular season and played the type of non-conference schedule that a few years later would almost certainly be rewarded by most committees. In the first year of a 64-team tourney, though, a 7-7 mark in the Big 8, just enough losses to second division teams in the league and two non-Division I wins were enough to cost the Tigers. By the way, Mizzou athletic director Dave Hart also was on the selection committee.

Also, in these days it may look funny seeing a SWAC team listed here, but Alcorn State at the time was a noted small school powerhouse, one that made four NCAA and two NIT trips from 1979-85 under Davey Whitney, winning four times in those tourneys. The Braves had scared teams like LSU, Houston, Georgetown and Kansas in recent NCAA tourneys, but in this season missed in all their early season shots at big names and also were bested by Southern in the SWAC.

1986
Last in: 11 Iowa (20-11), 11 LSU (22-11), 11 Missouri (21-13), 11 Richmond (23-6), 12 DePaul (16-12), 12 Washington (19-11), 14 Cleveland State (27-3), 14 Utah (20-9)
Left out: California (19-9), Dayton (17-12), Drake (19-11), Marquette (18-10), Montana (21-10), Ohio University (22-7), Tennessee-Chattanooga (21-9), Texas (18-11), Texas A&M (20-11), TCU (21-8), Wyoming (20-11)
Multi-bid conferences: 14

The second year of a 64-team NCAA Tournament saw even more diversity in the field, with six different leagues plus the then still-influential independents among at-larges given to seven teams seeded 11 or lower, as well as 14 conferences (including independents) putting two or more representatives in.

Of course, the most well-known of the last at-larges from this tourney was Cleveland State, one of two at-large 14 seeds and a club with a 27-3 record from the Association of Mid-Continent Universities (later the Mid-Continent Conference, now the Summit League). The fledgling AMCU-8 in just its fourth year did not have an automatic bid yet, but the Vikings proved a wise pick as they knocked off vaunted Indiana in the East Regional first round and then took out sixth-seeded Saint Joseph’s in the second round too. The Vikings came ever-so-close to an Elite Eight in their first-ever trip to the Big Dance, falling to No. 7 Navy 71-70 in the regional semifinals, and with their performance essentially made the case then and forever for an inclusive, national 64-team tourney.

DePaul was the 1986 version of 1985 Kentucky, in with a 16-12 record concocted against a taxing schedule. The Blue Demons were noted by committee chairman Dick Schultz for their late-season wins, with Schultz even saying on Selection Sunday that “going into last night there were three independents on the fence: Dayton, Marquette and De Paul.” That made it seem quite clear that the Blue Demons’ 95-87 win over Marquette the night before the selections was the win that put De Paul in the field, and perhaps kept Marquette out.

Richmond also received a bid from the newly named Colonial Athletic Association (formerly the ECAC South), capitalizing after an 8-0 start that included wins over Big East (Providence), ACC (Wake Forest and Virginia), and Pac-10 (Stanford) teams, plus two victories over defending Sun Belt champion VCU. The Spiders also split against David Robinson and Navy in the CAA regular season, enough to make Dick Tarrant’s team a worthy selection. Washington also snagged one of the last at-large bids, and its presence gave the Pac-10 two teams in the tourney. It’s hard to overstate just how much of a struggle the mid-to-late 80s were for Pac-10 basketball; on multiple occasions the conference was very close to sending just a single team to the NCAA Tournament.

Then there was LSU‘s path to a bid. The Tigers posted a 22-11 record and were ranked for a good share of the regular season, a seemingly fine resume. Until one took note of LSU playing four non-Division I teams-the then-popular quartet of BYU-Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific, Hawaii Loa and Hawaii-Hilo-plus the likes of then Division I Hardin-Simmons, Oral Roberts, Southern and SE Louisiana. Instead of being punished, the Tigers didn’t just get in as an 11 seed, but played their first two tourney games at home at the Maravich Assembly Center. Merry Christmas! LSU did take full advantage of that break, going all the way to the Final Four before losing to eventual national champion Louisville.

Among those missing, TCU and Wyoming both shared regular season conference titles in major football leagues. TCU tied Texas and Texas A&M for the Southwest Conference title, but the Horned Frogs’ most notable non-league wins were over NIT teams BYU and Drake, and the SWC that year was so down that not one of its nine teams won 20 games against Division I competition, and all three tri-champions were 70th or worse in the RPI. Not even having Horned Frogs athletic director Frank Windegger on the committee helped. “Our schedules just weren’t very strong,” he said in the Austin American-Statesman. “Our RPI hurt us. We had very few wins over top-50 teams…if TCU had beat Texas Tech (in the SWC tournament semifinals) it would have made a difference. If Texas had made it to the final, I think the same thing would have held true. Both schools were right on the fence, and so was (Texas) A&M.”

Two of the three tri-champions in the WAC-UTEP and Utah-made it; Wyoming did not despite losing by two points to UTEP in the WAC tourney final. The Cowboys were perhaps aced out by Utah, which lost in the WAC first round but had a win over Arizona that trumped anything Wyoming held as it went 6-6 out of conference including two non-D-I wins. In a Denver Post story by Mark Kiszla, Wyoming coach Jim Brandenburg said he “can’t fathom how they picked Utah ahead of us. I don’t think there’s any question I was surprised.” Committee chair Schultz noted “the bottom line was that the committee felt Utah played a harder schedule, while adding gasoline to Brandenburg’s fire was selection committee member and former Utah A.D. Arnie Ferrin saying “Wyoming’s schedule was just so soft early, and they had some major losses. That made the comparison obvious. Based on the information we had, it wasn’t really close.”

CBS’s Selection Sunday coverage before the bracket reveal noted California among a group of western schools including TCU, Utah and Washington as teams definitely on the fence (really the popular term at this time, far more than the ubiquitous “bubble” that is most popular now). The Golden Bears finished 19-9 overall and stomped fellow fence-sitter Drake by 25, but Cal also held two non-Division I wins and played in a once-again weak Pac-10. Drake tied for second in an MVC that put two teams in the field, and the Bulldogs defeated NCAA tourney 7 seed Iowa State in the regular season. At a time when 20 wins was considered by many a magic number, though, it may have been the absence of one more win that kept Drake out.

Among a few others, Montana held a win over a Washington team that snagged one of the last at-large bids, but the Grizzlies also lost twice to SWC teams and won a very competitive Big Sky with only a 9-5 record. Ohio U. finished second in a MAC that put regular season champion Miami (Ohio) in as an at-large plus third-place Ball State as the automatic bid, but the Bobcats’ non-conference had little to recommend with a 42-point loss at North Carolina (ouch) and also a neutral court loss to Navy. Tennessee-Chattanooga won the Southern Conference regular season and had a little cachet from three consecutive NCAA appearances from 1981-83, including a win in 1982. The Moccasins beat the two bottom SEC teams (Mississippi and Mississippi State) but missed in chances against ranked Georgia Tech and UAB plus against Georgia, and also had three non-Division I wins.

1987
Last in: 10 Arizona (18-11), 10 BYU (21-10), 10 LSU (21-14), 10 Western Kentucky (28-8), 11 Tulsa (22-7), 12 Houston (18-11), 12 Middle Tennessee State (22-6), 13 SW Missouri State (27-5)
Left out: Cleveland State (24-7), Florida State (18-10), Louisville (18-14), New Mexico (25-9), Rhode Island (20-9), Saint Louis (24-9)
Multi-bid conferences: 14

Especially in the 64+ team era, it doesn’t happen often when a defending NCAA champion misses the tournament. Louisville’s omission in 1987 was a big story on a number of levels. For one, the Cardinals had just won it all a year earlier; for another, their being left out meant the Metro Conference, which put teams in the Final Four each of the previous two years, would have no teams in the Big Dance after Memphis State-ineligible due to NCAA sanctions-had won the league’s tournament. (Indeed, conferences allowing ineligible teams to plunder automatic bids in their postseason tournaments would go the way of the passenger pigeon in a few years.) Naturally, Louisville coach Denny Crum was not happy, but selection committee chair Dick Schultz said that while the Cardinals were the best candidate from the Metro, “we felt that 14 losses was more losses than an at-large team should have.”

The other stunner was the Cards being left out for unknowns like Middle Tennessee State and SW Missouri State. MTSU rode a December win over Michigan into the field, though, for the Ohio Valley’s first-ever at-large bid and a feat the conference wouldn’t duplicate until Belmont in 2019, while Charlie Spoonhour’s SW Missouri team had an outstanding season out of the Association of Mid-Continent Universities, the same league where Cleveland State came from nowhere a year earlier and stunned Indiana on the way to the Sweet 16. Many surmised that the Bears and Vikings were playing for a bid in their tournament final the night before Selection Sunday, and indeed the AMCU-8 tourney winner received a bid. Teams like the Blue Raiders and Bears in the tourney meant that for the second straight year there were 14 multi-bid conferences (including independents).

Cleveland State’s missing with a 24-7 mark didn’t get nearly as much attention as Louisville’s snub, but it probably should have-after the Vikings’ run the year before, who wouldn’t have wanted to see if they could do it again? Unlike the year before, CSU didn’t have a marquee win over a team like DePaul to hang its hat on. Saint Louis also was a very near miss, and there was speculation after the pairings were announced that the committee could’ve put together a Missouri/SLU first round matchup. New Mexico also missed with 25 wins, relegated to the NIT for the fourth straight year after another light non-conference schedule. One had to appreciate the candor of committee member and Notre Dame athletic director Gene Corrigan, who specifically mentioned that Saint Louis, Cleveland State, New Mexico and Florida State were very close. Corrigan also elaborated on Saint Louis: “If it was one thing that hurt Saint Louis, it was that they lost six games to teams ranked below 125. Believe me when I tell you that we really looked at Saint Louis U. and Cleveland State.” Also, about Louisville, Corrigan noted: “If you look at Louisville’s schedule, game by game, they really got blown out a lot.” Also when asked if Louisville would’ve made the NCAAs with a closer loss to Memphis State in the Metro final than the 23-point margin it was, Corrigan said “I think they would have.”

Who to take out to put those teams in, though, would’ve been a tough call, in part due to surprise tourney winners in major conferences like the ACC (North Carolina State) and SWC (Texas A&M) stealing bids. Besides Middle Tennessee State or SW Missouri State, Houston probably would’ve been easiest-in fact, the Cougars weren’t even officially in the tournament until about an hour after the pairings were announced, as they had to wait on the Pac-10 tourney final, where Washington was trying to play its way into the field. In a quirk that would be repeated several times over the next 5-10 years, the initial pairings listed Houston/Washington as the 12 seed in the Southeast-Washington if it won the Pac-10 final going on as the selections were released, Houston if they didn’t. The Huskies lost to UCLA, giving the Cougars the spot with a mediocre record, but committee member Frank Windegger noted Houston’s 5-2 mark against the top 50 was a significant chip.

Arizona received the LSU treatment of the year before, not just getting in as a 10 seed with an 18-11 record, but given a first-round game at home against Texas-El Paso. (Some at the time again noted that Arizona athletic director Cedric Dempsey was on the selection committee). The Wildcats would not make as much of their gift as the Tigers did the year before, losing to UTEP in overtime. Arizona’s pick once again gave the Pac-10 just two teams in the tourney, the third time in four years the conference had that few representatives. Arizona did finish second in the Pac-10; other than that, the Wildcats’ resume consisted of mainly middling or less wins and playing well but striking out in high-quality chances against Georgetown, Illinois, Iowa and UNLV plus Pac-10 champ UCLA.

1988
Last in: 10 UC Santa Barbara (22-7), 10 Notre Dame (20-8), 11 Arkansas (21-8), 11 Rhode Island (26-6), 11 St. John’s (17-11), 12 Florida State (19-10), 12 Iowa State (19-11), 12 Oregon State (20-10), 12 Wichita State (20-9)
Left out: Akron (21-7), Arkansas-Little Rock (24-6), Cleveland State (21-7), Georgia Southern (24-6), Louisiana Tech (21-8), Marshall (24-7), Middle Tennessee State (21-10), New Mexico (20-13), New Orleans (21-10), Ohio State (16-12), Stanford (20-11), Utah (19-10), VCU (21-11)
Multi-bid conferences: 13

It’s easy to see how, when it comes to variety in the field, recent NCAA tourneys can’t hold a candle to the early years of the 64-team era. Among the double-digit at-larges in 1988 was UC Santa Barbara-which knocked off UNLV twice in the regular season-independent Notre Dame, Oregon State, Rhode Island and Wichita State.

All four 12 seeds were at-large picks in 1988. Iowa State got off to a terrific start (15-2) that was followed by a seven-game losing streak before regrouping with a 4-1 mark including a win over eventual NCAA 6 seed Missouri late, before falling to the Tigers in the Big 8 Tournament. Florida State got in seemingly for a second-place finish (7-5) in a crowded, good-if-not-great Metro (six teams with 19-plus wins; only one with more than 20) and a two-game stretch in early January when it beat Louisville (NCAA 5 seed) and Memphis State (NCAA 9 seed) at home.

Wichita State was the second team from the Missouri Valley, with reports that it got in on the strength of a strong finish, winning 10 of its last 12. The Shockers also boasted a win over nationally ranked Bradley during the season plus a win over fellow 12 seed Oregon State, and despite an early loss to Hartford. Of note: per NCAA RPI records, Wichita State had an RPI of 74 on Selection Sunday; their bid was a clear sign of respect of the MVC, which put at least two teams in the NCAAs every year from 1984-88. Oregon State snuck in after finishing second in the Pac-10, just enough after a non-conference showing that included an early win over soon-to-be-streaking Loyola Marymount (the Lions would win 25 in a row this season) and little else of significance. The Beavers just getting in gave the Pac-10 two teams in and only two for the fourth time in five years; if Oregon State had been left out, NCAA 1 seed and future Final Four team Arizona would’ve been the lone Pac-10 squad in the field.

LSU got in at 16-13-and as a 9 seed, no less-because of its strength of schedule and 8-6 record against top 50, according to committee chair Arnie Ferrin. Indeed, the Tigers did defeat NCAA 7 seed Vanderbilt three times and held wins over NCAA 1 seed Oklahoma and NCAA tourney teams Auburn, Florida and Maryland, but the Bayou Bengals also lost to Arkansas State and Northern Iowa by double digits, and non-conference losses to Georgia Tech and UNLV came by 17 and 19 points, respectively. In all, eight of their 13 losses came by 10 points or more. A 9 seed was inexcusable, selection was debatable, but almost certainly the committee remembered Dale Brown’s teams making deep tourney runs the previous two years after middling seasons.

On the other hand, Ohio State (16-12) was cited as one of first teams out. The Buckeyes held high-quality home wins over each of the top four Big Ten teams, not an insignificant stat in a year when each of the conference’s five NCAA teams was a 5 seed or better, but all four came at home. OSU was 3-9 on the road and its final impression was a 19-point loss at Michigan the day before Selection Sunday.

Really, LSU or any of the 12 seeds could’ve been left out, but it’s hard to quibble too much when the tourney has 13 multi-bid leagues. Arkansas-Little Rock was the most worthy team left out, in this opinion then (for what little it was worth from a 10-year old) but also looking at it some 30 years later. UALR missed the field despite a famed NCAA win two years earlier against Notre Dame and an NIT semifinal trip the year before. The Trojans defeated NCAA at-large squad Texas-El Paso out of conference and also won at Colorado of the Big 8, and their RPI of 47 was the second-lowest RPI of any team left out (Southern Mississippi at 36 was the only lower). UALR should’ve been a known quantity by now, but was dinged for an otherwise low-rated schedule and after losing to Texas-San Antonio in the Trans America Athletic Conference tournament semis.

Marshall, Middle Tennessee State and Stanford joined Arkansas-Little Rock and Ohio State as notable snubs. The Thundering Herd won the Southern Conference easily and defeated a Baylor team that was an 8 seed in the NCAAs as well as West Virginia. Middle Tennessee defeated Marshall, though, and the Blue Raiders also knocked off a strong Virginia Tech team (19-10, but ineligible for the postseason due to probation) the Herd lost to. MTSU finished second in the OVC, though, and was blown out at home by NCAA 8 seed Seton Hall by 32 points. Stanford defeated two at-large teams out of conference-Baylor and UC Santa Barbara-and the Cardinal’s worst non-conference loss was by a point to Santa Clara. Stanford also went 11-7 in the Pac-10, and by current standards it’s almost unfathomable to think a now-Pac-12 team with those credentials would miss the NCAA tourney. Three of its conference losses were to second division teams that year, though, and came in a league that was struggling so much that some felt it had fallen behind the PCAA (now Big West) at that time. Moreover, the RPI of those three teams-Marshall at 77, Stanford at 81 and MTSU up at 91-make it easy to see why they didn’t get in.

Poor New Mexico continued its run of NIT berths with another near-miss. The Lobos defeated UCLA in the preseason NIT and then-No. 1 Arizona in January (quality non-conference games still happened in January then) but lost to fellow bubble team Iowa State and went just 8-8 in the WAC. A 1-5 finish to the regular season certainly didn’t help, either. Louisiana Tech and New Orleans were co-champions of the new, six-team American South Conference. Both also made the NCAAs the year before-UNO as an independent, La Tech from the Southland-but both were left out this time. The Bulldogs had five losses against a weak non-conference schedule, and the Privateers had several surprising losses and were considered one of the nation’s bigger disappointments, a sign of how high expectations really were for a team that still won 21 games.

1989
Last in: 10 Colorado State (22-9), 10 Iowa State (17-11), 10 LSU (20-11), 10 Tennessee (19-10), 11 Evansville (24-5), 11 Minnesota (17-11), 11 Texas (24-8), 12 DePaul (20-11), 12 Providence (18-10), 12 South Carolina (19-10)
Left out: Akron (21-7), Arkansas State (20-9), Boise State (22-7), California (19-12), Georgia Southern (23-5), New Mexico (20-10), New Mexico State (21-10), Oklahoma State (16-12), Saint Louis (23-9), Temple (18-11), UC Santa Barbara (21-8), Wisconsin (17-11)
Multi-bid conferences: 13

The aftermath of Selection Sunday on March 12, 1989 wasn’t the most contentious one. This was a year with no one agreed on team as the ‘most snubbed,’ even as there was certainly room to question a few teams’ spots in the field.

Once again, 13 different leagues (including independents) put at least two teams in the tournament. Incredible balance was shown among at-large teams seeded 10th or lower, with eight different leagues plus the independents represented among the last 10 at-large seeds.

Texas received its first bid since 1979, and in the first year under Tom Penders. Colorado State was in for the first time in 20 years in its breakthrough season winning the WAC regular season title under coach Boyd (Tiny) Grant. Evansville received an at-large bid at the Division I level for the first time in a special year that included a 21-1 stretch over 22 games. DePaul was a surprisingly low 12 seed with 20 wins and after winning 10 of its last 12 games (and showed that perhaps it was underseeded with a 12-vs.-5 first round win over Memphis State).

Providence and South Carolina joined DePaul as the lowest-seeded at-larges. The Friars held on for dear life for a bid after a 13-0 start aided heavily by a comfortable regional (read: soft) schedule dissolved into a 5-10 finish in the tough Big East, which would put five of its teams in the NCAAs and three more in the NIT quarterfinals or better. Six of those losses were by four points or less, though, and ironically a November win over South Alabama of all teams may have been the difference, as the Jaguars were Sun Belt champions and an 11 seed in the NCAAs. South Carolina also faded late but eked out a spot after a hot 11-3 start that included cracking the top 20 briefly early in the season before a 7-7 finish.

Tennessee had a season much like both of them, starting 11-1 to work its way into the national polls before hitting a 4-8 skid. The Volunteers probably wouldn’t have made the tourney without four straight wins down the stretch before an SEC tourney semifinals loss. Minnesota edged out Wisconsin for a spot by the slimmest of margins: one game in the Big Ten standings and perhaps one point. Both teams finished 17-11 overall and split their two games in conference, but the Golden Gophers were 9-9 in league to the Badgers’ 8-10. Minnesota won the teams’ second meeting at Williams Arena by a 59-58 score; a Wisconsin win there, and perhaps the Gophers are out and Bucky likely would’ve made its first trip to the NCAAs since 1947.

Iowa State also snagged a 10 seed seemingly on the sole basis of a home win over a then-No. 3 ranked Missouri team in February. That Cyclones team is probably one of the more questionable at-large picks in the entire 64+ team era. There wasn’t much to the resume. ISU’s spot probably should have gone to UC Santa Barbara, which got off to an 11-0 start, finished 21-8 and also defeated Iowa State at a neutral site. The Gauchos also topped Arizona State and Oregon of the Pac-12 and Colorado of the Big 8-all on the road-but were not selected after finishing 11-7 in the Big West. Neither was New Mexico State, which finished a game ahead of the Gauchos in the Big West standings and pinned UCSB with three of its eight losses.

CBS’s selection show mentioned New Mexico State, UCSB, Wisconsin plus Akron, Boise State, New Mexico and Oklahoma State as teams being on the fence but just missing. It would’ve been hard to imagine Oklahoma State getting in with a 16-12 mark that included a 1-6 finish; if the Cowboys had, it would’ve been almost entirely based on an early February win over top-ranked Oklahoma and another late in the month against then-top 10 ranked Missouri. Boise State missed despite defeating NCAA 6 seed Oregon State plus a strong Akron team for Bob Huggins, whose Zips won 21 games for the second straight year but couldn’t get even a sniff of the NIT.

There could’ve been a spot set aside for New Mexico on the snub list just about every year in the 80s. The Lobos won 20 games yet again and came in third in the WAC, but finished 6-5 down the stretch and committee chair Cedric Dempsey specifically noted on CBS’s selection show they “did not play as well late in the year as early.” A 32-point loss to UTEP in the WAC tourney semifinals was not exactly a strong closing argument.

One other team that wasn’t far from qualifying at all was Arkansas State, which swept MVC tournament champion Creighton in an early-season home and home and also topped Houston of the SWC and Southern Mississippi of the Metro. The then-Indians of the American South Conference also had an excruciating six losses by a total of 10 points, including four by a single point each.

Up next tomorrow: Part 2: 1990-94