Mark Wiedmer
North Carolina athletic director and NCAA Tournament Selection Committee chair Bubba Cunningham has some explaining to do when it comes to the 68 teams selected on Sunday for this year’s tourney.
Specifically, he has this question to answer: How in the heck did his Tar Heels, with a 1-12 record in Quad 1 games, get in the tourney when West Virginia, with a road win at Kansas and six Quad 1 wins total, was left out?
And when Cunningham was questioned about this, he quickly made sure to say he “was not in the room” when UNC was discussed and that “all the policies and procedures were followed,” which seemed like the kid who when asked who threw the rock through the school window said it wasn’t him, despite there being pebbles in his pants pockets.
It was all enough on Monday for West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey to stand at a lectern bearing a sign proclaiming “National Corrupt Athletic Association” and proclaim, "This stinks at the highest level.
This doesn't pass the smell test. Any way you slice it, this reeks of corruption.”
Beyond those words, Morrisey added that he understood Cunningham would receive a substantial bonus if the Tar Heels made the tournament. Sure enough, Carolina Insider (via the New York Post) reported that Cunningham will receive a bonus just under $68,000 for UNC being included in March Madness. And should the Heels shock the world as they did a couple of years ago and reach the Final Four, Cunningham would receive a $225,000 bonus.
This news caused my oldest daughter Julia Caroline to suggest: “Cunningham should give that $68,000 to the West Virginia governor’s charity of choice.”
In truth, neither North Carolina or West Virginia probably deserve to be in the field. They are, at best, mediocre teams who shouldn’t be mucking up a national championship that should require excellence for admission, or at least a winning mark against a competitive schedule.
Yes, UNC was 8-0 against Quad 2 teams. Yes, they were much better down the stretch, winning eight of their final 10 games, though none of those wins came against teams who made the NCAA Tournament. Yes, they’ll pull better television ratings for however long they last than West Virginia would have, and don’t think that isn’t considered, if only behind closed doors.
That kind of logic is why former UT-Chattanooga coach Will Wade will be coaching McNeese State against his college alma mater Clemson in the opening round. And why Arkansas coach John Calipari, should he escape Kansas and coach Bill Self - whom he defeated when he was the Kentucky coach in the 2012 national title game - could possibly meet old rival Rick Pitino and his St. John’s Red Storm in the round of 32. Cal and Ricky P didn’t exactly exchange Christmas cards when Cal was at UK and Rick was at Louisville. Meeting up again in March Madness would surely be a TV ratings bonanza.
But this is another example of why there needs to be more transparency in what the Selection Committee views as important going in. Are Quad 1 wins the chief measuring stick, as has been believed the last few seasons? Or is it Quad 1 and Quad 2 combined?
For the uninformed, when considering schools, the Committee uses the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings as a key component. In the NET formula, a Quad 1 win is viewed as a home victory over a team ranked 1-30, a neutral site game against a team ranked 1-50 or an away win over a team ranked 1-75. So for SEC teams, for instance, almost every conference victory outside those against LSU or South Carolina was a Quad 1 triumph.
To that end, to beat up Cunningham a final time over UNC, even with Duke star Cooper Flagg out on Friday night in the ACC semifinals, and with talented Dookie sidekick Maliq Brpwn sidelined with a shoulder injury, the Tar Heels lost 74-71 after trailing by 24 points at one juncture. Knowing they supposedly needed that win to make the NCAA field, they were badly outplayed for much of the game by the short-handed Blue Devils. Who knew Cunningham had $68,000 reasons to have that result ignored?
But let’s also give Cunningham’s committee credit for getting a few things right. The No. 1 seeds - Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston - were spot-on, though you could argue that Duke should have been the overall No. 1 since it beat Auburn early in the season and AU also lost three of its final four games.
There also seemed to be some attempt to follow the S-Curve, where the strongest No. 1 meets the weakest No. 4 and the strongest No. 2 meets the weakest No. 3 in the Sweet 16. That said, Michigan fans certainly have a beef that the Wolverines are a 5 seed while Wisconsin is a 3. After all, Michigan finished third in the Big Ten to the Badgers’ fourth. The Wolverines were 12-7 in Quadrant 1 games to Wisconsin’s 8-8 mark. And Michigan was 2-0 against the Badgers, winning both at Wisconsin and in Sunday’s Big Ten title game.
Also, the Committee has the potential for three all-SEC matchups in the Round of 32, with Florida possibly playing Oklahoma, Alabama facing Vanderbilt and Kentucky going against Texas. When you get 14 teams in the tourney, as the SEC did, there’s no way to avoid meeting a fellow conference team at some point, but it would be better if it was at least in the Sweet 16.
Regardless, what’s done is done. The play-in games start Tuesday in Dayton, with North Carolina facing San Diego State at 9:10 EDT on truTV. It promises to be a mostly wonderful 67 games over the next three weeks.
But come next year, whoever the committee chair is, should forfeit whatever advance he’d receive if his school makes the tournament field long before the tourney begins.
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Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@mccallie.org