March Madness is here - no, I'm not talking about Charlie Sheen - and like many other sports fans, I'm eager for the world's greatest sports tournament to begin. This year is different from others, with the selection committee adding three more teams to the tournament field to play in the highly controversial "First Four." Although this doesn't mean that the tournament itself will be greatly affected, it does mean that we won't have to hear Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas argue about tournament expansion for at least one more year. Another huge change is that every single game will be broadcast on TV between four networks - CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV - ending an era of CBS dominance of television rights for the Big Dance and beginning a new era of anti-productivity in the American workplace for the first few weeks of March.
But in many ways, this year's tournament is very similar to the ones before it. Four basketball powerhouses comprise the No. 1 seeds - Ohio State, Kansas, Pittsburgh and Duke - the Big East has a staggering number of teams in the tournament, and some squads on the bubble that felt they deserved to make tournament were kept out. And in a year in which many experts said there would be no "snubs" because of the lack of quality teams to choose from, I have heard more whining than ever before. So before I have to watch another Seth Greenberg "blame-the-committee" press conference, let me tell you why Greenberg and his fellow snubbed coaches have nobody to blame but themselves.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the NCAA basketball tournament selection process, 31 teams receive automatic bids for winning their conference tournaments, which allows room for 37 "at-large" teams that are selected by a tournament selection committee which evaluates teams by their RPI, strength of schedule, and a number of other criteria. Many critics argue that the fate of this tournament should not rest in the hands of 10 athletic directors and conference commissioners, most of whom have limited prior experience and expertise in the field of college basketball. But the beauty of this tournament is that there are so many different ways to get into the field of 68. Take Villanova, for example. The Wildcats have lost 10 of their last 15 games and were knocked out in the first round of their conference championship. Why does a team like that deserve to be dancing? Because they won 16 of their first 17 games and had non-conference wins against tough teams such as Temple, Maryland and UCLA. Or look at George Mason, a team that started the season 2-2 with home losses to N.C. State and Wofford. The Patriots even started their in-conference schedule at 2-2. But how did they end the regular season? With 15 wins in a row, the longest such streak in the country. Despite a mediocre start to its season, George Mason received an at-large bid based on the merits of its in-conference play.
Another great example is Alabama State. The Hornets, members of the weak Southwestern Athletic Conference, finished the regular season with a losing record of 15-17 and notable losses to teams such as Southern and Prairie View A&M. So how does this team and its ugly RPI of 257 make the tournament instead of a quality team such as Colorado? Because Alabama State won its conference tournament and snagged an automatic bid. The Hornets won when they had to. All Colorado had to do was win four games in the Big 12 tournament and it would have been in, no questions asked. Granted, Colorado plays in the Big 12 and not the SWAC, but if you feel that you deserve to be in the tournament, prove it in your conference tournament, not in the press conference after "Selection Sunday."
But the best advice that anyone could give to a bubble team is to just win. Why have Kansas and Duke been in the last 16 NCAA Tournaments? It's not because they manipulate their RPI or stack their strength of schedule; it's because they win. They don't lose to teams like San Diego and Portland - like St. Mary's did. And they definitely aren't swept by Virginia like Virginia Tech was. Sure, they have slip-ups - Duke did lose to the Hokies - but at the end of the day, the only thing that Coach K is worried about is whether his team will get a top seed, not whether it will get into the tournament. And that's the benefit of winning 30 games a season.
Do I believe that the selection committee is always right, or that teams such as Alabama or Boston College don't have a legitimate reason to be upset with the committee's decision? Of course not. Nobody is perfect, just ask the referees from the Big East Tournament game between St. John's and Rutgers. But I do think that no matter which teams are left out of the tournament, there always will be new teams that believe they are deserving of an at-large berth. So instead of whining or blaming the selection committee, go out and win. Win in your non-conference schedule, win in your in-conference schedule and win in your conference tournament. Simply put: win and you're in.
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