To College Basketball fans, the month of March represents the best time of the year. High level regular season games, conference tournaments culminating in the release of the field of 68.
With that being said, not everyone is always happy with the bracket. There are snubs and schools that feel slighted about where they are in the field. In this article we will be taking a look at teams that I think got the short end of the stick along with who is too highly thought of.
Over seeded Teams:
Florida, South Region, 7 Seed: The seven line overall from the committee is very puzzling. While the Gators did a great job righting the ship after Keyontae Johnson’s emergency, their resume does not match up to this. There aren’t many bad losses. Though getting blown out by Kentucky and losing to South Carolina at home is not a great look. It just did not have many good wins. Beating West Virginia away from home and blowing out Tennessee is cool but was that better than Loyola Chicago or Oklahoma?
Clemson, Midwest Region, 7 Seed: More from the seven line here as Clemson got a nice boost from the committee. Early season wins over Purdue and Alabama were nice but their cold stretch in January was almost ignored completely. This was a team that lost 4 of 5 by at least 18 points. Combine that with a late season loss to a bad Miami team and the Tigers placed too high.
BYU, East Region, 6 Seed: The Cougars are a good team and Mark Pope is a good coach. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the resume that moved the needle besides an away win at SDSU. Besides that, the only win over a tournament team was Utah State. Combine this with losing to Gonzaga by double digits three times and I am not sure that BYU is a top half of a bracket team.
Under Seeded Teams:
Loyola Chicago, 8 Seed, Midwest Region: Porter Moser’s Ramblers were always going to be one of the most under seeded teams in the field. The lack of chance for quality wins in league combined with none out of the league meant their resume just did not stack up. Simply put, this is one of the best teams in America. The numbers agree, Loyola has the number one defense in the country and a top 50 offense as well. Cameron Krutwig is not going to be someone Illinois wants to see in the Round of 32.
Texas Tech, 6 Seed, South Region: Chris Beard and the Red Raiders had another solid season. They are on a mini slide coming into the tournament but the 6 line feels too low. Especially when you compare their resume to someone like Purdue on the 4 line. The Boilermakers had 5 losses outside Kenpom’s top 30, Texas Tech had none. They are more teams that could be mentioned, but that one really stood out that there should not be a two seed discrepancy between them.
Missouri, 9 Seed, West Region: The Tigers entered the tournament as one of the nations coldest teams. Losses in 6 of their last 9 took some shine off of their early season success but it cannot be ignored. This was a team that was on the committee’s initial list of 16 and fell to a nine in less than a month. With wins over nine teams in the field of 68 that is something that seems ridiculous. The Tigers also got stuck in the worst draw possible with Gonzaga as their 1 seed to top things off.