The Syracuse basketball program didn’t make the tournament, but not because they didn’t do enough, but because they didn’t meet the ever-changing criteria.
This article isn’t about being spoiled or whining about not getting in. This article is about the Syracuse basketball program not meeting the criteria.
Speaking of criteria, what do you have to do to get in the tournament? Play tough non-conference opponents? Win on the road? Don’t have bad losses? Have great wins?
What is weighted more heavily? What does the NCAA Selection Committee weigh more? RPI or the eye test? The problem is no one knows what they’re striving for. There only knowledge is going through the season winning as many games as possible.
It’s a blind taste test.
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So what ultimately kept SU out of the tourney? Was it their horrible road record at 2-11? Well only three other teams in the ACC were above .500 on the road.
Is it because SU had 14 losses? Specifically horrible losses to St. John’s, BC, and UConn? Well that would make sense, but didn’t a 15 loss Vanderbilt team make it in? Strange.
So it’s not even that the moving target of criteria continues to change from year-to-year, it apparently changes from team-to-team on a case-by-case basis.
Head coach Jim Boeheim appeared on Mike and Mike on Monday morning to talk about this inconsistency. His comments come via the ESPN Radio affiliate in Syracuse:
"“The majority of the committee is the same from last year, only a few differences. It was obvious that last year they honed in on the wins we had. My criteria for the tournament is can you win games in the tournament? We’ve proven that we can do that. At the end of the day I thought we’d sneak in, but also my thoughts don’t matter.”"
Jay Bilas was also on Mike and Mike and he filled in the blanks with the loss comparison that I implied above in regards to Vanderbilit. Ultimately at the end of the day SU fell one game short.
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We talked about it on Bud and the Manchild via ESPN Radio in Syracuse on Monday. If you take away one of their bad losses, or simply beat Miami in the ACC tournament last week, then you’re in. The Orange didn’t do enough and we said it a couple weeks ago, “don’t leave it in the hands of the judges”, if you do, you face the punishment of your actions and they have, it’s time to accept it.