The name on the jersey

[BUSongwriter]

Coaches rightfully tell players not to pay attention to the school name on the jersey of their opponents. But it's obvious others do.

Latest example: Joe Lunardi's bracketology today has North Carolina, Clemson, and Wisconsin as the "last three in." North Carolina is 0-9 against Quad 1 schools. I thought those wins mattered. Clemson (66) and Wisconsin (74) are both behind Bradley in the NET rankings, with Clemson losing two games to Quad 4 opponents. I thought those rankings mattered.

We're coming up on the most exciting time for college basketball fans. For me and a lot of other mid-major fans, it's also one of the most frustrating times.

[Tommy]

Great post, Songwriter.

Yeah, NCAA tourney is bought and paid for by the power conferences, so they are re-paid in kind. Can't have a tournament without 16-20 ACC/Big Ten schools every year. Gets real old. Didn't they have their shot during their conference tournaments? Just a broke system and the rankings don't mean squat. I really dislike the whole thing.

[Stryker]

Coaches rightfully tell players not to pay attention to the school name on the jersey of their opponents. But it's obvious others do.

Latest example: Joe Lunardi's bracketology today has North Carolina, Clemson, and Wisconsin as the "last three in." North Carolina is 0-9 against Quad 1 schools. I thought those wins mattered. Clemson (66) and Wisconsin (74) are both behind Bradley in the NET rankings, with Clemson losing two games to Quad 4 opponents. I thought those rankings mattered.

We're coming up on the most exciting time for college basketball fans. For me and a lot of other mid-major fans, it's also one of the most frustrating times.

UNC - Agree, no good wins, but this is a case where the previous years runner-up is going to get the benefit of the doubt, especially with at least one big returning star on the team. And yeah, name matters here, it is a blue blood. If they go 3-2 down the stretch they will probably still get in unfortunately.

Clemson - Has a win over a top 25 team, and only has 7 losses, fewer than BU. A top 25 win is going to outweigh 2 losses to quad 4 teams for sure.

Wisconsin - Has a top 25 win, and 1 point loss to #3 Kansas. It's going to outweigh several conference losses. But I don't think they will get in, I see more losses for them before the end of the year and they should be out.

BU - Has beaten nobody but cupcakes. Every good team BU has played has blown them out. Double digit losses to Utah State, Auburn, & Arkansas, and even an ASUN team in Liberty. MVC conference wins just aren't going to get it done. Without a signature non-conference win, and bad losses to good non-conference teams, there just isn't anything on the resume to justify an at-large. Especially when the MVC is as weak as it is.

A signature win during the season is the biggest factor to getting into the tournament IMO (Outside from auto bid and overall record). A team has to demonstrate that they can beat another good team.

[Da Coach]

...
BU - Has beaten nobody but cupcakes. Every good team BU has played has blown them out. Double digit losses to Utah State, Auburn, & Arkansas, and even an ASUN team in Liberty. MVC conference wins just aren't going to get it done. Without a signature non-conference win, and bad losses to good non-conference teams, there just isn't anything on the resume to justify an at-large. Especially when the MVC is as weak as it is.

A signature win during the season is the biggest factor to getting into the tournament IMO (Outside from auto bid and overall record). A team has to demonstrate that they can beat another good team.

Bradley played all those games, except Arkansas, without their leading scorer (Rienk Mast). The committee does take that into account. However, I am not saying that will be enough to get them an at-large. It won't.

[BUfan14]

Plus against the other top four MVC teams Bradley is only 2-3 right now with a blowout loss to the perceived best team in Drake. So when you get blown out and were never in the game against the five best teams you have played you’d have to pretty much be undefeated in conference to even be in the conversation and as soon as we lost to Murray State and Belmont that was out the window.

I’d love to get another shot at a big team in the tourney now that we are playing better, but we have a lot of business to take care of first. SIU and Drake are tough teams. Then there’s Arch Madness. It’d be really nice to capture both conference titles this year, go to the tournament and then maybe be an at large contender next year with most of the team back. I can dream can’t I?

[Da Coach]

The selection committee does consider how a team played down the stretch. So if Bradley can win their last 3 games, and advance to the championship game, that would be a 12 game win streak. It might get Bradley a little closer.

[Tommy]

Picking the ‘best’ 64 teams for the tournament is subjective and always favors the power conferences. What is the point of having conferences if at least the conference champion from each one doesn’t get to go? Sure, they may get blown out, but if they never get a shot how can you know for sure?
We’ve talked about it before on this forum, the fairest way would be to invite conference champ and tourney winner from each conference. If the same team wins both, the 2nd place team gets the invite. Fair it would be, but we all know it’s a pipe dream.
If the regular season and conference tournaments aren’t your chance to go to the dance, then why bother with them at all knowing that your conference dictates your opportunity in the post season and not your overall performance. How can mid-majors ever improve when power conference teams refuse to play at our buildings or even schedule us if we’re perceived to be good and big networks never give us the exposure to get kids interested in our schools.
The game is fixed and they can change the ranking system and the selection committees all they want, but the results will always remain the same because it’s all about money and not competitiveness.
You can only win games against the teams that you play and if you’re in a quad 1 conference you have that many more opportunities for a quad 1 win. The system is so stupid it’s almost laughable if it wasn’t so frustrating.

[BUSongwriter]

Jerry Palm of CBS has BU as the MVC auto-qualifier as a 13 seed today. I know it means nothing, but it's nice to see us on the dance card.

Keep the streak alive tomorrow, Braves!

[BradleyBiz]

Palm has had Bradley as his aq for a couple weeks now. It is interesting that a team like North Texas is getting at large consideration. They played no major conference school all season and lost any quad 1 non conference games. Their only quad 1 win was a conference road win at UAB (net ~65). They benefit from 2 other conference teams being top 75 net. Is this really the resume (and model) the NCAA wants?

[Canton BU fan]

The selection committee does consider how a team played down the stretch. So if Bradley can win their last 3 games, and advance to the championship game, that would be a 12 game win streak. It might get Bradley a little closer.

Seems they used to consider last ten games. That's why the at large bid in 2006.

[Stryker]

Seems they used to consider last ten games. That's why the at large bid in 2006.

I think it is a pipe dream. ISU went 17-1 in conference play with an RPI of 34 or something crazy and didn't get an at-large. I think those old at-large days are over unless an MVC team truly has signature non-conference wins on their resume.

[Tommy]

I think it is a pipe dream. ISU went 17-1 in conference play with an RPI of 34 or something crazy and didn't get an at-large. I think those old at-large days are over unless an MVC team truly has signature non-conference wins on their resume.

Absolutely agree. If it comes down to a committee selection, we can forget it.

[Stryker]

Absolutely agree. If it comes down to a committee selection, we can forget it.

Yeah it sucks. Now if BU had won against Liberty and one of Utah State/Arkansas/Auburn, I think they would get at-large consideration if they win out and lose on sunday in St. Louis. Unfortunately it didn't play out that way. If the team sticks together and they can get some good wins next year and repeat this MVC performance they probably would be in with an at-large imo.

[yoda]

the committee does take into account that those early season losses were to very good teams away from home & without our best player
-- and often without multiple starters. (vs Auburn & Arkansas we were without our best player plus anouther starter who is our best 3-pt shooter)
But even with that, I have little faith that the committee will treat mid-majors fairly.
St. Peter's, the mijdmajor that made it to the Sweet 16 last year, drew the highest ratings in over a decade
for their televised game! I wish NCAA would take that into account.

[Da Coach]

Yeah it sucks. Now if BU had won against Liberty and one of Utah State/Arkansas/Auburn, I think they would get at-large consideration if they win out and lose on sunday in St. Louis. Unfortunately it didn't play out that way. If the team sticks together and they can get some good wins next year and repeat this MVC performance they probably would be in with an at-large imo.

Those early season losses were disappointing. I think we could all see this team had the potential to be much better, and now they are reaching that potential late in the season. A couple past Wardle teams have had that history of peaking at this time of the season. So, let's take care of business and win out and take the MVC Championship and the auto-bid.

Recall that Rienk Mast's knee injury caused him to miss the Utah State, Auburn, and Liberty games. And Zek Montgomery's injury caused him to miss the Auburn and Liberty games. And, although he returned and played against Arkansas, he may not have been 100% and contributed only 4 points.
In my opinion, the Liberty game (a 55-44 loss in the Paradise Jam) was the only non-conference loss that Bradley might have had a chance to win if Rienk and Zek were able to play. The other 3 losses- Utah State (84-62 loss), Auburn (85-64 loss), and Arkansas (76-57 loss)- realistically, Bradley probably would not have won even if Rienk and Zek were at 100%.

One other thought... Drake is the only other MVC team with even a remote chance of getting an at-large bid. But Drake's case for an at-large appears even weaker than Bradley's.
Drake played a weak non-conference schedule. Their non-conference Strength of Schedule ranks 257th among 363 D1 programs. For comparison, Bradley's ranks 54th.
Drake does not have a signature win, either.
Bradley's NET this morning is #60, Drake's is 71.