To say there’s an underdog charm to this NCAA South Regional would be understatement. This bracket, actually this entire tournament, has been sort of like throwing a Labrador puppy into a pit with 700 wild animals and 10 minutes later seeing it walk out, wag its tail and look at you while waiting patiently for a cookie.
Meet Loyola Chicago (11th seed) and Kansas State (ninth seed) – or Buddy and Max. So cute.
Wait, they’re still here?
“The committee tends to always favor bigger conferences like the SEC and the ACC,” Loyola senior Donte Ingram said Friday. “In my opinion, there’s some mid-major teams like St. Mary’s and Middle Tennessee (which both lost conference tournament games) that got screwed over.”
Let this serve as an indictment of the NCAA tournament selection committee. Something has to change.
By late Thursday night, at least three low seeds had advanced to the Elite Eight: Loyola, Kansas State and ninth-seeded Florida State in the West. (No. 11 Syracuse was scheduled to play second-seeded Duke in the Midwest late Friday night.)
Upsets are common in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament. But to have nearly half the final eight teams being relative afterthoughts is extraordinary and suggests the selection process needs to be overhauled. Too few mid-major teams are given adequate credit for the strength of their respective conferences. Too many major conference teams are given too much.
The South Region began with two teams from the ACC (1-Virginia, 6-Miami), two from the SEC (5-Kentucky, 3-Tennessee) and one from the Pac-12 (4-Arizona). All are gone.
Compare that with the Missouri Valley Conference, where Loyola was in danger of not even making it into the 68-team field if it lost the conference tournament -- which almost happened. The Ramblers, who've become the tournament's feel good story with their 98-year-old team chaplain and pom-pom nun, Sister Jean, barely defeated Northern Iowa (54-50) in the MVC quarterfinals. They secured the win with a free throw with two seconds left.
Loyola won its next two games to earn the automatic NCAA bid. Then came the consecutive upset tournament wins over Miami, Tennessee and Nevada. “Sister Jean” became a household name.
Now this: Something called the “National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum” is releasing a “limited edition” bobblehead of Sister Jean. It’s uncertain if this will jeopardize her NCAA eligibility.
This storyline would’ve never happened if Loyola wasn’t given a chance.
“There was a lot of talk that we weren’t going to get in if we didn’t win our tournament,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said. “To get in here, I think it’s going to spark conversation about this. I know the committee has such a hard job. But I’m not surprised there’s low seeds here.”
What the conversation needs to be?
“The system,” he said. “There was so much talk that we weren’t even in the conversation to get in. We’ve shown we belong here. It’s hard to imagine if we didn’t win our tournament that we wouldn’t make it to this stage.”
He’s right. Talented but one-and-done-laden programs sometimes lose to more experienced teams in the tournament, as Kentucky did to Kansas State on Thursday night. The increasing number of transfers in college basketball has created more parity. Players value playing time over everything else and don’t automatically sign with power conferences anymore.
The power shift isn’t likely to change, especially with major programs now under the FBI’s microscope.
It’s understandable in football why a school from a Power 5 conference would be given the benefit of the doubt when weighing rankings or the playoff field. But not in basketball. Not always, anyway.
The SEC sent a record eight teams in the NCAA tournament. The last two (Kentucky, Texas A&M) were eliminated Thursday. (The ACC still had four teams of nine teams left entering Friday night, with Duke facing North Carolina and Clemson meeting Kansas.)
The MVC is 1-for-1.
Ingram said the committee too often holds it against mid-major teams that don’t schedule out-of-conference games against major conferences, sometimes through little fault of their own.
“You want to get those big games so your resume looks good, but sometimes it’s tough,” he said. “We reached out to just about every high major out there, and Florida was the only one that accepted us this year. So what do you do when you can’t schedule those games?”
Note: Loyola won in Gainesville 65-59.
Kansas State’s Kamau Stokes said he’s not surprised by the tournament upsets.
“I don’t feel like people should pay attention to seeds because they’re just opinions,” he said. “The Top 25 (poll) is all opinions.”
He said upsetting Kentucky “felt good because it upset a lot of people. Everybody thought we were going to lose by 20. It felt good to prove people wrong.”
This tournament has been a series of bracket-busting moments. There’s a message there.
EARLIER: Braves still have too many holes to expect payoff from rebuild
EARLIER: Let the miracles continue: Loyola, Sister Jean advance to Elite Eight
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