Big XII Coach Rips Selection Committee then gets clobbered

[user1]

Head coach of University of Colorado ripped the entire NCAA Tournament Selection Committee and alleged bias when his team was not offered an NCAA at-large bid.
Ricardo Patton said:

"Not having anyone from the Big 12 on the NCAA selection committee may have been costly for the conference --
Colorado is disappointed to be in the NIT..."

and

"many mid-major teams who got tournament bids would have difficulty achieving good records if they'd played in leagues like the Big 12."

http://www.arkcity.net/stories/031406/spo_0003.shtml

(now keep that in mind as you read on, since Colorado got to host a far lower seeded midmajor in their first NIT game)



SO THEY PLAYED THEIR FIRST ROUND NIT GAME LAST NIGHT

Here is what happened:

They played horribly and lost big time AT HOME to Old Dominion,
in front of a very surprisingly LOW crowd of well under 3,000!

"They lost the game on the court by winning the battle on the bench. They played their way as individuals and coach Ricardo Patton, who lost this group somewhere back in February, called them out for it afterward.

"I don't think we were a good basketball team the past few weeks," Patton said.

Here are a couple comments from the interviews:

"I agree, drop basketball and lets get a Division 1 hockey program in here. I guarantee you would draw more than 2,000 people."

"Patton may need the almighty's help to keep his job...
I guess I was wrong about the Colonial Athletic Association. Mid-Majors probably are better than I thought.
(I hope Billy Packer is reading this!!)

I CONCLUDE THAT THE BIG XII IS WAY OVERRATED AND IS NOT AS STRONG AS MANY PEOPLE THINK.
Maybe they should not have gotten as many bid as they got.
Maybe Drake should have gotten Colorado's NIT bid.

[ESkog]

Colorado has the worst attendance of anyone in the Big 12. This doesn't make sense to the rest of us as they are also one of the only NCAA sites in the country where they serve beer. Maybe it's the mountains.

They really tanked the end of the season though. I'd agree that the mush at the bottom of the Big 12 is not good - but it's hard to argue with a UT team who beat 2 of the #1 seeds, or a KU team who's on a huge winning tear including that UT team.

That said, I'm sure we won't be overlooking you guys at all in light of recent events - we'll be bringing our A game. It comes down to whether you can beat our A game (and you might be able to, as we do like to inexplicably put up 20-turnover games still every now and again...)

[#300]

This is really rich.
I hope people see these BCS egos as the pompous jerks they really are.
Old Dominion had not beaten a single team on the road whose RPI was less than #221 Towson State.
Then they go to "powerhouse", at large wannabe Colorado and smoke the Buffs, literally putting the crowning stamp onto the coach's pink slip.
Expect to see Ricardo fired soon as the chants started way before Colorado's 33 point humiliation to Texas A&M in their tourney to finish a 5-6 home stretch run in the final month of the season.
Patton earns nearly $1 mil per year.

[tornado]

Let's look at the NIT and see how the major schools have done vs. the mid-majors.

The people who did the matchups have for the most part matched mid-major vs. mid-major and major vs. major.

Of the 28 teams who have already played games in the NIT, 14 are "majors" and 14 are "mid-majors".
But only 4 games have pitted majors vs. mid-majors.
So far the tally is 2-2, with
Clemson beating lower seeded La. Tech (hardly a fair matchup)
South Carolina beat far lower seeded WKU
Old Dominion beating the higher seeded Colorado
Houston beat lower seed BYU

So far, the midmajors are doing just fine, so let's hope this keeps up.

[SFP]

I can see South Carolina winning the NIT again this year. They have the same team as last year and under performed this year during the regular season until the SEC Tourney.

[PekkaMarkkanenen]

No one in their right mind had Colorado anywhere close to the bubble. Ricardo Patton is nuts. I mean seriously unbalanced. It's a wonder he can hold down a steady job of any kind, let alone a coaching gig at a D-1 institution.

[tornado]

Did anyone have Pacific beating Boston College??

[WileyKUFan]

For those of us from BigXII country we've known Patton was a little unbalanced for a while...but how do you get a coach to Colorado?? Even in years when they produce a winner ( like this year ) they rarely have more than a few thousand in attendance. That school is party central, GORGEOUS and serves BEER at games yet no one cares.

Patton is probably safe because they know no other coach would come there...

[SFP]

For those of us from BigXII country we've known Patton was a little unbalanced for a while...but how do you get a coach to Colorado?? Even in years when they produce a winner ( like this year ) they rarely have more than a few thousand in attendance. That school is party central, GORGEOUS and serves BEER at games yet no one cares.

Patton is probably safe because they know no other coach would come there...

I'd coach there Boulder is a great place. You need an administration that can market the product for better recruits and then to the student body. Then again, when the students have time, they are off to go skiing, biking, hiking, climbing and everything else there is to do in the great outdoors. Can you blame them? Football does not interfere with ski season so they have a pretty good fan base for that. When you live in the mid-west or east coast the winters are brutal so why not stay inside and watch some hoops. I know here in San Francisco people do not ask which games are on this weekend, they ask how much snow is Tahoe getting.

[jhawkgal]

Patton's job was clearly on the line this season. The only thing that saved him was post-season play!

[tornado]

Well, well, things have gone one step further.
Coach Patton, who as noted above, ripped the NCAA selection committee for leaving his team out and yet including teams like Bradley (who he never dreamed would get to the Sweet Sixteen),
has now been informed that he is officially a "LAME DUCK".
His contract will not be renewed.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/ncaa/article/0,2777,DRMN_23932_4675542,00.html

[tornado]

Patton is in the news once more in an odd twist to what you normally read.
This time it is a little bit of good news for him.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9552368

Patton had apparently veered off the usual policy for reporting sexual harrassment claims (the claim was not against Patton) but the violation was not severe and was not punished.

And he was completely cleared of racial harassment charges.
What is a little bit ridiculous is that a Black player had brought charges of racial harassment against Patton, who is also Black, as is almost everyone on Patton's coaching staff.
Is it possible for a Black person to racially harass another Black person or is this an example of how it is just too easy to find something to sue over any more?
Interesting.