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Sunday, December 22, 2024
Part 4 of our look back at Selection Sundays and NCAA Tournament bubbles over the last 35 years moves into a new decade with our review of 2000-04. Strength of schedule becomes king, Barry Hinson has his first notable snub, and Butler in 2002 and Utah State in 2004 beg the question of just how much do teams like them need to win to get a bid.
Part 3 of our reflection, research and review of Selection Sundays and the NCAA Tournament bubble over the last 35 years looks year-by-year at 1995-99. The stretch saw conference champions like Manhattan and Miami (Ohio) rewarded in 1995, a shift towards mid-pack majors as the 90s drew to a close but also surges by a trio of Midwestern leagues.
The second part of our review of bubble teams in and out in the NCAA Tournament over the past 35 years focuses on 1990-94. The span included those spurned during arguably the greatest NCAA Tournament of all, a 25-4 Dick and Tony Bennett led Wisconsin-Green Bay team left out, and a committee point of emphasis develops favoring conference champions.
We begin our review of the bubble over the years with the first five years of the 64-team NCAA Tournament era, 1985-89, including 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.
As Selection Sunday 2020 approaches, Hoopville contributor Adam Glatczak is going to look back at 35 years of the bubble. Introducing his year-by-year look at at-large ins and outs since the NCAA tourney expanded to 64 teams in 1985
If the Big Ten is to get 11 or even 12 teams into the NCAA Tournament, a couple of teams need to play their way in, including one who won on Sunday. Plus the Bearcats finally avoid overtime, two conferences get tighter, and a subpoena is served to rekindle the hard feelings between a school and its former coach.
Final notes and numbers on this year’s NCAA tourney, where this time close games picked up in the late rounds. Also, thoughts on the obvious lapse in officiating emphasis points as well as CBS & Turner’s coverage.
Ray provides an essay from the national championship game, where Virginia found a way to win in overtime.
In our first off-season podcast, we look back once more on the national championship game and the implications of a couple of aspects of that and a prior game, then turn to a couple of big schools with a coaching change. We end with a look at some player movement.
Virginia gives the sport of college basketball a champion it can be proud of after outlasting Texas Tech in overtime in the national championship game Monday night.
