Selection Sunday is an exciting time for 68 teams in college basketball, but there are a few programs that absolutely dread the day.
No team enjoys being on the bubble where your March Madness fate is left to the subjective judgement of a committee. You’ll hear teams get penalized for strength of schedule while others miss out due to losing those tough games. It’s a difficult act to balance.
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But when the tournament bracket came out on Sunday, several teams left out absolutely had a case to be included in the tournament.
Let’s take a look at the four biggest snubs.
Indiana State
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The Sycamores finished atop the Missouri Valley Conference in the regular season, but a conference tourney loss to Drake was apparently enough to drop Indiana State out of the field. And sure, the Valley isn’t typically a multiple-bid league, but Indiana State deserved an at-large bid. The Sycamores at No. 29 in the NET were the best-ranked team to be left out since the NCAA started using NET as a metric. https://twitter.com/RobbyDonoho/status/1769494017992011816 This was a team that won 28 games, but the committee showed some recency bias with this decision.
Pittsburgh
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While the Panthers were fourth in the first-four teams out, they were among the most undervalued teams from the committee and bracketologists this season. The Panthers closed the season out with a 12-4 record (including wins over Duke, NC State and Virginia). It is also a team that boasts some exciting talent, particularly with freshman guard Carlton Carrington. The Panthers’ non-conference schedule was especially underwhelming — ranked in the 300s — and included a bad loss to Missouri. But this was a team that improved considerably as the season progressed and should have been in the field. https://twitter.com/Pitt_MBB/status/1769408427699155308
Oklahoma
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The Sooners were one of those teams that had to feel cautiously optimistic heading into Selection Sunday, but a poor finish to the season seemed to undo Oklahoma’s tournament hopes. Porter Moser’s squad finished the year with four losses in five games — the lone win coming narrowly against Cincinnati. But still, this was a team that won 20 games while competing in the nation’s best conference. The committee will likely point to the lack of signature wins (1-10 against tourney teams) and a No. 46 NET ranking. Yet, this is still a team that could have made noise in the tournament.
St. John's
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St. John’s finished just behind Indiana State in the NET at No. 32, so they both have reason to be upset. But Rick Pitino’s team went into March looking like one of the more dangerous teams out of the Big East. They closed out the season with six straight wins before narrowly losing to UConn in the Big East semifinals. This was a case where the committee looked at where a team was in January over where a team is right now. That’s exactly why Pitino was so upset that he straight-up declined an invite to the NIT. https://twitter.com/SNYtv/status/1769497952630755344
