© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Keith Strudler: Teams You Won’t See in the NCAA Tournament

Beginning Thursday at approximately noon eastern time, the first of 64 men’s college basketball teams will begin a process of elimination also knowing as the world’s largest sanctioned illegal gambling event. It also goes by the NCAA Basketball Tournament, or the two days that about a quarter of the working public seems to come down with an unidentified illness requiring sick time. That 64 actually started at 68 on Tuesday, but most people don’t count those first four play-in games, mainly because they’re not part the betting pool.

To be clear, I have very little qualification to offer any advice about who may or may not do well in the Tournament, other than what I read online at my desk at work and all the games I watch all season because I’ve already binge watched the entire run of Billions and Nathan for You. And let’s be clear, the NCAA Tournament is a crapshoot at best. If you don’t believe me, just ask anyone that bet significant money on Virginia last year. So I won’t spend any real time discussing any of the teams in the dance, including my Florida Gators, who of course is scheduled to play its first-round game against Nevada tomorrow night at exactly the same time my temple has called a meeting for all 6th grade parents to talk about Bar Mitzvah planning. I’m assuming God is punishing me for something I did – either that or protecting me from watching a potentially ugly first round exit.

What I would like to talk about today instead is a team that didn’t make into the field – of which there are around 300. Specifically, I’d like to talk about North Carolina State, one of the several bubble teams that came up just short of an at-large bid. The Wolfpack were pretty good this year and finished 22-11, including 9-9 in the brutal ACC Conference. But they lacked a signature win and ended up just on the wrong side of the divide, along with TCU, Indiana, Texas, and a bunch of other schools whose resume was good, but not great. Which means they’re now playing in the second tier NIT Tournament, where NC State already won its first-round game against Hofstra, another team that hoped to be in the main event. That did not sit particularly well with retiring Wolfpack Athletics Director Debbie Yow, who released a statement that itemized her several critiques of the selection process, including strength of schedule, wins against Quad 1 and 2 teams, and a bunch of metrics that are supposedly the criteria by which teams get chosen. That note went fairly public, as was intended I’m sure, and rubbed people either the right or wrong way, largely depending on whether or not you’re a North Carolina State fan.

It’s not really worth discussing Yow specifically in this case, especially she’s retiring in a matter of days after a highly successful run as AD. And even though we don’t see formal statements like this that often, it wouldn’t be March if there weren’t some basketball coach that’s complaining to any and every live mic about how his team did everything they were supposed to do and still didn’t get in. Which is always ironic since most of those teams lost at least 10 games, which seems to indicate there were a few more things that could have been done. Whether it’s a coach or an AD, someone high up is going to publicly complain that they got jobbed, North Carolina State included.

Which does lead to two two interesting points. First, it shows the importance of results, not process, in the minds of college athletics leaders. As much as everyone likes to talk about how sports teach kids how to compete and work together and that’s why it should be part of the college experience, at the end of the day, what always seems to matter most are validation and results. And there’s nothing more validating in college basketball than making the NCAA Tournament. The Wolfpack may still be playing in a tournament right now, but to a whole lot of people in and outside of the program, it feels like they aren’t.

And second, what’s really surprising this and every year a couple of teams get left out of the tournament that maybe should have gotten in and complain about it is the idea that somehow the highly subjective world of sports would be anything but. Debbie Yow, and Seth Greenberg years ago at Virginia Tech, which seemed to be the first team left out every year, somehow expected that in a landscape of human instinct, things might still somehow be objectively fair. That’s why Yow cited statistics and metrics – because it gives the illusion of objectivity. But in sports – whether it be officiating or drafting players or picking tournament teams – it’s always somewhat subjective. Which means that one person’s 68th team is another’s 69th, which is why St. John’s, not NC State, went dancing.

Now, that may not help you pick any of the 63 upcoming games to win your office pool. But if I can leave you with one thought, it’s this. Pick Duke.

Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

Related Content