Seeding Louisville No. 1 overall one of committee's missteps

Posted: March 15, 2009

There wasn't anything the NCAA Tournament selection committee could have done to get all the most deserving teams into the field, short of messing with the results of the SEC and Pac-10 championship games.

Tournament bids that should have gone to St. Mary's and Creighton instead were pilfered by Mississippi State and Southern Cal, which won their conference's automatic bids in agonizingly close title games.

Committee members demonstrated the integrity of the process by selecting two at-large teams from a weak SEC field and seeding none of the league's three entrants higher than South No. 8 LSU -- even though SEC commissioner Mike Slive is committee chair.

Just because the committee is scrupulous, though, does not mean it is infallible. Among the puzzlers:

Louisville is No. 1 overall? However you want to define it -- by margin (minus-17 to UConn, minus-14 to Western Kentucky) or opposition (non-tourney teams UNLV and Notre Dame) -- the Cards surely had more bad losses than any overall top seed, ever.

Why sandbag Washington? The Pac-10 regular-season champion earned the West No. 4. Seems about right. But why stick the Huskies with a first-round game against SEC tourney champ Mississippi State? Purdue, meanwhile, got the No. 5 seed in that region and a first-rounder against Northern Iowa.

Why elevate Villanova? Wake Forest was 6-1 against the top 50 to Villanova's 7-6. But not only did the Wildcats get the No. 3 seed that should have belonged to the Deacons, they also got to start their journey in Philadelphia.

The bubble criteria? The committee respected bubble teams that defeated top opponents, clearly the entry fee for Arizona (Gonzaga, Kansas), Maryland (North Carolina, Wake Forest, Michigan State), Michigan (Duke, UCLA) and Minnesota (Louisville).

That had to sting for Saint Mary's, which lost twice to Gonzaga with star guard Patrick Mills injured and cost itself a chance to play a November neutral-court game against Wake Forest with a surprisingly poor effort against UTEP.

Lesson learned? The slightest slips can make a difference.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/vie...p?t=527895

I have no problem with Louisville being #1 over all, none. They won the regular season title and conference tournament title of the toughest basketball conference in the nation. They are playing great balll right now, I see no quibble with thier selection.

I agree. The U of L won the Big East tournament and regular season title. I do believe that the Big East needs to change its conference schedule and tournament format again to create more a balanced conference schedule. My solution is to go a 16 game schedule where everybody plays each team once plus one bonus game against a rival/made for tv/competive matchup. The conference tournament should start on Tuesday with the following matchups 1 v 16, 2 v 15, 3 v 14, and 4 v 13. The winners would have a day off because Wednesday would feature 8 v 9, 7 v 10, 6 v 11, and 5 v 12. The winners would play tuesday winners. Also the Big East needs to find a way to get all of the conference tournament games on TV. I do not care it it ESPNU, ESPN Classic, or local ESPN Big East network.

I am fine with U of L getting the #1 overall seed. Sure they had some early losses, but they finished hot (One of the few top teams to not lose late in the season). They won the toughest conference both regular season and tourney titles. I thought they deserved the top seed.

I am surprised that X is a #4 seed. They were 5-5 in there last 10. They are a 5-6 seed.