Tournament Selection Blunders

<p>This quite possibly has to be the worst tournament selection ever. So many wrong-doings to teams all over the place. Only 2001's No. 6 Gonzaga getting a 6 seed I think is worse than some of the stuff that went down today:</p>

<p>-Florida getting the top overall seed? UF is sincerely overrated right now, coming off of a season ending that included 3 losses out of the final 5 games. They won their conference tournament and manhandled Ohio State, but OSU has beaten way better teams, didn't have Greg Oden completely healthy in the UF game, and has finished the regular season MUCH better with a conference tournament that would put the SEC to shame. Kansas is also more deserving than Florida for that matter.</p>

<p>-Arkansas getting in? Quite possibly the last team that should have been in out of the bubble teams, with the only reason being that they made the finals of the SEC tournament. Too bad even the MVC tournament had better teams than the SEC. Sorry Arkansas, 13 losses shouldn't have cut it for anyone. Way too many teams should have gotten in over them.</p>

<p>-Drexel, Syracuse being left out? These two teams plenty deserved to be in. Drexel asked the committee last year what they could do to improve this season and get an at-large bid and they were told to "schedule better non-conference games and win on the road." They did just that with wins at Syracuse and at Villanova, not to mention plenty others. When asking today why they didn't get in the committee responded "finishing 4th in the CAA isn't going to cut it." A complete about-face for the selection comittee that left the team with the 4th hardest Non-Conf schedule and a No. 40 RPI out of the tournament for a few losses against very good CAA teams. Syracuse on the other hand plays in a VERY tough conference, and had a winning record and 20 wins overall. Seems pretty logical that they should get in, right? Well the selection committee picked 18-13 Arkansas and other controversial teams such as Stanford, Illinois, and Villanova. Other teams that were snubbed of note: Air Force Academy, Appalachian State, Kansas State, Missouri State, Bradley, Akron.</p>

<p>-Niagra, 21-11 gets to play in the play-in game. Too good of a record for too sorry of a game.</p>

<p>-There were some good things of note in this year's tournament, most notably some deserving teams high rankings. Usually reserved for power conferences, mid-majors earning top 5 bids include: Butler, Southern Illinois, Memphis.</p>

<p>First round matchups to watch: (5) Butler vs. (12) Old Dominion, (8) Kentucky vs. (9) Villanova, (8) Marquette vs. (9) Michigan State (with Tom Izzo battling one of his old members of his coaching staff Tom Crean)</p>

<p>Released Brackets can be downloaded and printed at <a href="http://www.cbssportsline.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.cbssportsline.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Have fun entering all those office/online pools!</p>