St. Louis Post writer says ISU "deserves a spot in NCAA tournament"

[Braves4Life]

The Valley is a one-bid, one-and-done league this year.

CU and ISU make NIT -- CU is one-and-done; ISU goes to MSG (unfortunately).

BU goes to CBI and wins two before calling it a season.

IMO

[braveatheart]

In the WAC final it does not matter, because both team should get in regardless. St. Mary's has shown what type of team they are with a healthy Patty Mills. If you have not seen him play you should. He plays a lot like Tony Parker but with a better jump shot.

IMO ISU will not get in! CU should but I doubt it. We will be a 1 bid league. ISU and CU should blame their scheduling if they do not get in. They know that our conference overall is a bit weaker so they needed to go outside a bit of their comfort zone or win out to make a much better case. This may be the best thing for the MVC in the long run because there will be a re-emphasis on SOS.

SFP the WAC will not get two at large bids. Did you mean the West Coast Conference?

[ER3]

If ISU had won, it would've opened up a 3-bid scenario.

Nope...UNI had absolutely no chance of an at large bid if they lost in the title game.
Their RPI would have been in the 60s...
Auburn as their only decent non-con win...
Losses to UIC, Indiana State, Iowa, Iowa State, Wichita State, and Drake...

Their name wouldn't have even been brought up in the selection committee discussions...

[Da Coach]

I have to disagree with that. A matter of fact, the only SOS # the committee looks at is a team's OVERALL SOS.

Now a team's schedule is grouped by wins vs. 1-50, 51-100, 101-200, and 200+ for the selection committee, but in their selection sheet the only SOS # is Overall.

Evansville's SOS is #57
Drake's SOS is #127

I believe the NCAA committee members do consider things like non-conference SOS.
They aren't supposed to look at things like margin of victory/loss, but it's IMO they did consider ISU's 30 point blowout against Drake last year when they excluded ISU.

I hope ISU gets an NCAA bid.
I hope Creighton gets an NCAA bid.
I hope Bradley gets an NIT bid.
I am also realistic to think that all three are highly unlikely. And if ISU is left out, their nonconference schedule will be the reason.

[SFP]

SFP the WAC will not get two at large bids. Did you mean the West Coast Conference?

Whatever conference Gonzaga and St Mary is in.

[Tulsa Brave]

St. Mary's is probably NIT bound. Let's see what happens in other conference tourneys this week.

[SFP]

St Mary is a bubble team! That score will not help them. They are a much better team with a healthy Patty Mills and just maybe the NCAA will do what they have done for some BCS schools. I think they should get in over Michigan, NW, PSU, SC, KY and a bunch more.

[Braves4Life]

I'm sorry SFP but NO WAY St. Mary's makes The Dance. Bubble teams can't lose their last game by 20+ points (I know the NCAA says they don't take this into consideration but I bet they do for mid-majors). Plus, they did play with Patty Mills who was only 2-16. I'm afraid they're NIT bound.

Who's this year's tournament sleeper? Take a look at red hot VCU

[Beninator]

Arizona got in last year at 19-14...the most losses ever by any at-large team!!!

Arizona got in last year because of their strength of schedule which at the time was among the best in the country.

[cpacmel]

I will be surprised if that happens....
anyone recall how many midmajors got at-large bids last year?
of the 34 at-large bids, only South Alabama at 26-6, Xavier at 27-6, Gonzaga at 25-7, St. Joe's at 21-12, and St. Mary's who was 25-6 were the mid-majors who got at-large bids.

Is the Mountain West not considered a mid major conference?

The year before in 2007, there were only THREE - it was only Butler (27-6), ODU (24-8 ), and SIU (27-6).
Meanwhile 18 - YES EIGHTEEN different BCS teams got in by an at-large bid who had 10 or more losses.... including Texas Tech at 21-12 and Arkansas at 21-13!!

In 2007 there was also Nevada and Xavier.

[Beninator]

Maybe so-- but 14 losses?? and 9-9 in their own conference...losing to SEVEN different teams among the 9 opponents in their conference, even lolsing to the 9th place team.

Some of their wins, like a 3 point squeaker over 14-17 Santa Clara and a 6 point narrow win over Weber State, are not that impressive.

I agree SOS is important, but you can't schedule tough then lose 'em all and still claim to be deserving of a bid!!!
Their conference road record was 2-7, and they had NO ROAD wins over any team with RPI better than 144!

It looks like you are talking about this years Arizona team with this post. I was talking about last years Arizona team. Last years Arizona team (19-14) had at least 5 quality wins by my count.

[SFP]

I'm sorry SFP but NO WAY St. Mary's makes The Dance. Bubble teams can't lose their last game by 20+ points (I know the NCAA says they don't take this into consideration but I bet they do for mid-majors). Plus, they did play with Patty Mills who was only 2-16. I'm afraid they're NIT bound.

Who's this year's tournament sleeper? Take a look at red hot VCU

I still think St Mary's has a chance. Patty Mills had a bad game but he just started practicing on Saturday! I hope the NCAA takes that into consideration and that they made it to the finals and lost to a very good Gonzaga team. I would not be suprised either way!

[Phantom]

As I've said on other boards, we have basically no chance of getting in. (MAYBE about 1 in 1000, and probably not even that good ). We would need about every single bubble team to lose this week, and perhaps then we would be back in the discussion. But even at THAT point, they would still take CU over us. Every possible scenario that could help our at-large chances is actually helping CU's instead, and they have a better resume than we do.

Our schedule wasn't gonna do us any favors on Selection Sunday, and we further damaged our case with some bad losses in conference. As far as conference play goes, the committee dosen't care about who you beat, but they definately care about who beats you, esepecially in a non-BCS league like the Valley. Had we beaten UNI once in the reg. season, or not been swept by Indy St, we'd probably be in consideration right now.

The committee dosen't care about the 2 top-50 wins vs. CU but they sure as hell care about the 2 OT losses to sub-200 Indy St, and the fact that the MVC Champ beat us 3 times (albeit by a TOTAL of 9pts, with 2 of the 3 games going to OT, and 1 to double OT, but none of that will matter---oddly enough the 30pt hammering DU gave us in the title game last year DID matter though, so that may show that margin of victory does play a part, but only when the committee wants it to...ok rant over ).

[braveatheart]

I still think St Mary's has a chance. Patty Mills had a bad game but he just started practicing on Saturday! I hope the NCAA takes that into consideration and that they made it to the finals and lost to a very good Gonzaga team. I would not be suprised either way!

I hope you are right SFP. St. Mary's is the kind of team all mid-major fans should hope gets in the big dance. Three of the 6 losses are to Gonzaga. 25-3 vs everybody else. Several good wins mixed in.
I would rather watch them over a middle of the pack BCS school.

[Braves4Life]

St. Mary's is the kind of team all mid-major fans should hope gets in the big dance. .....I would rather watch them over a middle of the pack BCS school.

Amen! I second that