Concerns starting in the Big East?

[NT80]

Cincinnati was left out of the NCAA tourney:

The Bearcats were left wondering if it hurt them to join the Big East. They were 8-8 in the basketball-rich conference, with a nation-high 16 teams.

"I'm open to anyone telling me a justifiable reason as to why this team did not get to the NCAA tournament other than, 'Andy we can't let nine teams from one league get in. It sends the wrong message,'" Kennedy said.

[eulesseagle]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2132

Cincinatti had a cake walk OOC schedule but were 8-8 in league play. They don't deserve to be in the NCAA much less the NIT.

Texas A&M had an easy OOC schedule but they got in!?!?IMHO they don't deserve an NCAA bid.

Now look at Missouri State University (formerly SMSU):

They got snubbed from the NCAA

1. They had a strong RPI rating of 20.

2. They beat ORU and Wisc-Mil as well as all their conference mates who are going to the NCAA.....go figure!! The MOValley takes 4 to the dance.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2623

The SBC gets one bid to the NCAA and one bid to the NIT.

[untbowler]

Air Force and Seton Hall should have been replaced by Cincy and Missouri State, although Cincy lost a Syracuse Team that one week before got blasted by a weak DePaul team by 40pts, so Cincy should only cry to themselves.

[gksmith]

I think Cincinnati got screwed.

They may have had a soft(er) OOC, but they also play in the Big East...the toughest and best conference in the land.

Maybe they should have played a beefier OOC. They lost to Memphis by 10 in November. That is the only quality team I see on their OOC.

Maybe the NCAA is sending a message (though mixed message) to the teams. Play a tougher schedule. You can't really do anything about your conference but you can schedule better teams early in the season.

Missouri State got screwed too and they even played the tougher schedule. ORU got in by winning the conference tournament (which is deemed more important then winning the conference regular season).

Unfortunately, there will always be teams that can claim "we should have made it over so-and-so."

[bigrobdsp]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/clubhouse?teamId=2132

Cincinatti had a cake walk OOC schedule but were 8-8 in league play.  They don't deserve to be in the NCAA much less the NIT.

Texas A&M had an easy OOC schedule but they got in!?!?IMHO they don't deserve an NCAA bid.

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aTm finished really strong. they plowed through a pretty good end-of-year schedule including a #2 seed Texas. then they played Texas well in the confrence tournament. I have them picked to upset the #5 seed Syracuse (not that my picks should carry any weight, as a matter of fact that statment should cast serious doubt on my argument). anyway I think that aTm deserved to be in the big dance and maybe got seeded a little low.

[NTEagle08]

Air Force was such a surprise that ESPN.com Bracketologist Joe Lunardi didn't even have them on his last 8 teams out list on Sunday. Utah State was another one of those borderline schools that I was surprised to see that got in.

I think what hurt Cincy was that the Big East had already gotten 8 bids up to that point, and the committee probably starting questioning if they wanted to give one conference 9 bids.

I think Texas A&M should have gotten in, yes their non-conference schedule was pretty easy. But they won 8 out of their last 9 games, and advanced to the semifinals of the Big XII Tournament.

The committee certainly did send a message to power conference teams to schedule a better non-conference schedule, that's the main reason why Florida State was left out of the field of 65.

If anyone got an opportunity to watch the Selection Show yesterday, the berating of the committee President last night by Jim Nantz and Billy Packer was pretty bad. They were pretty much pissed of as to how the MVC confernce could have gotten as many bids as the Big XII and the ACC, but their arguements didn't hold water.

[untbowler]

If anyone got an opportunity to watch the Selection Show yesterday, the berating of the committee President last night by Jim Nantz and Billy Packer was pretty bad. They were pretty much pissed of as to how the MVC confernce could have gotten as many bids as the Big XII and the ACC, but their arguements didn't hold water.

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Who cares they are card-carrying BCS brown-nosers

[NT80]

I think what hurt Cincy was that the Big East had already gotten 8 bids up to that point, and the committee probably starting questioning if they wanted to give one conference 9 bids.

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This is what will cause the football playing schools to break off from the non-football schools. They all have good basketball but there's too many schools in the conference to justify giving 9-10 bids from 16 teams. Look for a new Big East to form soon.

Big East Conference today:

Cincinnati*

Connecticut*

Georgetown

DePaul

Louisville*

Marquette

Notre Dame

Pittsburgh*

Providence

Rutgers*

St. John's

Seton Hall

South Florida*

Syracuse*

Villanova

West Virginia*

* Football playing school

**Add Memphis with the other football schools to have a nice, tough all-sports conference: (you could also add UCF or Marshall for additional fodder)

New Big East?

Cincinnati

Connecticut

Louisville

Memphis

Pittsburgh

Rutgers

South Florida

Syracuse

West Virginia

** This would cause CUSA to need additional schools (like UNT?).

Edited March 14, 2006 by NT80

[NDT]

You left out Rutgers.

[NT80]

You left out Rutgers.

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Oops, I sure did. I got the list off the Rutgers site and they didn't include themselves on that list...&*^%$.

[NT80]

'For every head coach in the Big East, today was a frightening day'

BY BILL KOCH | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Since the day in November 2003 when the University of Cincinnati accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference, school officials have talked about the boost membership in the elite conference would provide the school's athletic program.

But Sunday, after the Bearcats (19-12) were shocked to discover that their string of 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances had come to an end, interim head coach Andy Kennedy said that being a member of the Big East might have actually hurt the men's basketball program.

Kennedy had been so confident UC would make it that he was telling his players the past two days during practice that they should relax, they had nothing to worry about. They were in.

Then the hammer fell. And just like that, all that the Bearcats had accomplished this season against such overwhelming odds didn't seem to matter.

"I made no qualms about it," Kennedy said. "If this team did not get to the NCAA Tournament, I felt like we failed. I know our kids, because of the proud heritage of this program, are very upset right now."

Kennedy said the only reason he could think of for why UC was left out was that the selection committee was reluctant to take nine teams from the Big East.

"To me, the only explanation is that despite the rhetoric that we hear about not putting caps on teams from one league, I think they did not feel justified in allowing nine teams from one conference," Kennedy said.

The committee took a record eight teams from the Big East - Connecticut, Villanova, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Marquette, Syracuse and Seton Hall - breaking the previous mark of seven from one league.

"I need the truth to be told and the truth to be told is that we can't give one (conference) nine bids, so for every head coach in the Big East, today was a frightening day," Kennedy said.

What happened to UC is exactly what some Big East observers feared would happen when the league expanded to 16 teams this season, forming a conference that some called the most powerful college basketball had ever seen.

But Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said repeatedly the league would not be too strong for its own good, that the committee had assured him each team would be viewed on an individual basis and that there would be no limit placed on how many teams could be invited from one league.

When told Sunday night that Kennedy believed UC was left out for that very reason, Tranghese - who served on the committed from 1997-2001 and was chairman in 2001 - urged restraint before jumping to conclusions.

"I'd like to think that's not the case," Tranghese said.

Craig Littlepage, the Virginia athletic director who chaired this year's committee, said UC received serious consideration.

He implied that the Bearcats had been left out because of the season-ending knee injury to forward Armein Kirkland on Jan. 9. The Bearcats went 5-10 after Kirkland's injury, but beat Syracuse and West Virginia, both of which made it to the Tournament.

"Cincinnati's record after a season-ending injury was considered (as a negative factor)," Littlepage said. "Yes, Cincinnati did have a very good season. We have two gallons of water and a one-gallon container."

The Bearcats knew they had hurt their cause when they lost to Syracuse in the first round of the Big East Tournament on a last-second shot by Gerry McNamara. But that loss seemed to be less damaging after Syracuse went on to knock off No. 1-ranked Connecticut and eventually won the tournament.

Their Feb. 28 loss at Seton Hall also hurt.

Littlepage said the Syracuse loss is not what kept UC out of the 65-team field.

"No, no," he said. "We looked at every aspect of the body of work. To try to pin it on ... we try not to put that much importance on one individual game."

But Littlepage has said repeatedly that the committee does put a lot of importance on the strength of a school's nonleague schedule. If that's the case, Kennedy said, UC should have been in.

The Bearcats were ranked No. 40 in collegeRPI.com, with a schedule ranked as the fifth-most difficult in the country. Their non-conference schedule was ranked No. 22.

They were 11-11 against teams in the RPI top 100 and won four games against RPI top 50 teams. They were 8-8 in the Big East.

"The whole thought process, not only from Mr. Littlepage, but from years past was that we understand sometimes in league play you don't have control over your league schedule," Kennedy said. "They really want you to control the part you can, which is your nonleague, which is what we did very aggressively."

Littlepage said RPI is not as powerful a tool as some believe.

"It's one of the tools we have at our disposal," he said. "It gets far too much (credit) as a determinant. What gets a team into the Tournament is a team that plays well in its conference schedule."

Tranghese was as perplexed as Kennedy.

"I just don't know what their thinking was," he said.

"I thought they had done enough, both in the league and outside the league, to warrant a bid. You don't know what goes on inside the room."

What went on inside UC's locker room as the players, coaches and staff watched the selection show was severe disappointment mixed with disbelief.

"I'm just terribly disappointed for these kids," Kennedy said, "especially for these seniors. It's not a fitting way for it to end."