March Madness: ACC or MVC?
More on the NCAA tourney bracket later, but more important is the disgusting spectacle that was Jim Nantz’s and Billy Packer’s commentary following the announcement of the bracket. Everyone with half a brain can recognize the love affair CBS has with the ACC, but for these two bozos to go off on the committee and the MVC because there are as many Missouri Valley teams in the final 65 as ACC teams was beyond the pale.
Maryland and Florida State have no one to blame but themselves. Fair or not, if you are the number 5 or 6 team from the ACC, you have a non-conference schedule hurdle to clear. After 10 games, FSU was 9-1, but had beaten Jacksonville, Alcorn State, Louisiana Monroe, Texas Southern, Bowling Green, Stetson and Campbell in that run. They played one tournament team (Florida), to whom they lost by 18.
Maryland started the season 11-2, including wins against Fairleigh Dickinson, Chaminade, Nicholls State, Western Carolina, American, Delaware State, VMI and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. Maryland actually played four games against tourney teams, beating #8 seed Arkansas 75-62 and #4 Boston College 73-71, but losing to #3 Gonzaga 88-76 and #8 George Washington 78-70. Following the cupcake start, Maryland was 8-10.
The #5 team from the Big East (Georgetown), on the other hand, played at home against Vanderbilt, went to Oregon, went to Illinois, and scheduled Duke out of conference. That made up for the cupcakes they scheduled.
Is this a double standard? Perhaps, but the committee has been telling the power conferences for years that they need to schedule games against the mid-majors and stop gorging on cupcakes. I think it’s great that Bradley made it in over Maryland and FSU. And the solution for Gary Williams and Billy Packer is easy - next time, schedule a game against Wichita State or Missouri State instead of Nicholls State.
