Deserving it

[SWC75]

It's a national championship tournament. The teams that deserve to be in are the teams that have proven themselves to be among the best teams in the country over the course of the season. The idea is to get them together in a tournament to determine the best of the best.

The rest of the teams are along for the ride. Some of them are in conferences that shouldn't even be in Division 1. they cling to that status in hopes of pulling off an upset that will prevent the sort of confrontation we've waited all year to see. Those teams should be in division 2 or a basketball 1AA where their kids would have a shot at a championship.

Some of them are from legitimate D1A conferences but they were also-rans, clearly not the best team in the conference or close to it. Ironically those are the teams we spend our time talking about this time of year. We don't talk about whether Virginia is better than Villanova or if Michigan State or Kansas could beat those teams. Instead, we obsess over which 20-13 will get in and which will be left out. the fact is none of those teams deserve to be in the tournament. Some of them will wind up in it because we need 68 teams. some will not. barring a fluke, the ones who get in will be gone after the first weekend anyway.

if we don't hear (or read) "Syracuse" tonight, let's not climb out on a ledge. Just sigh and move on. See who wins it this year and dream about next year when maybe we'll 'deserve' it.

 

[Lucid]

It's a national championship tournament. The teams that deserve to be in are the teams that have proven themselves to be among the best teams in the country over the course of the season. The idea is to get them together in a tournament to determine the best of the best.

If that were all it was about, it would be a 20 or 25 team field, not 68. I don't necessarily believe we need THAT many, but the fact remains... teams heat up and cool down throughout the year, and come tournament time, the excitement can come from unexpected Cinderella teams, not just the 20 or so "best" or most deserving.

The term "deserving" is very subjective. Is the tournament just to determine the best of the best, or is it supposed to be "fun" too?

 

[newmexicuse]

The tournament is intended to embrace a certain universe of teams. Teams that are the regular season or post-season champions from smaller conferences do deserve to be in as part of that universe. They have earned the opportunity to play against teams from larger conferences who in some cases will not schedule them. The mid-pack teams from major conferences do not especially deserve to be in, it just so happens that some of them will end up in to fill out the field.

We had our opportunity to play our way in and we did not get it done. In an "absolute" sense we do not deserve a bid. In a "relative" sense we are just another team amongst the many fringe teams that really haven't earned a bid and are just field fillers. As a Cuse fan, naturally it would be nice to get in, as a basketball fan I would have no complaint either way.

I am sorry, big conference, tough schedule, all irrelevant if you can't win more than 50% of your conference games. If that minimal standard is too tough for our program, maybe we should go back to being an ECAC titan.

 

[HOFCeluck]

If that were all it was about, it would be a 20 or 25 team field, not 68. I don't necessarily believe we need THAT many, but the fact remains... teams heat up and cool down throughout the year, and come tournament time, the excitement can come from unexpected Cinderella teams, not just the 20 or so "best" or most deserving.

The term "deserving" is very subjective. Is the tournament just to determine the best of the best, or is it supposed to be "fun" too?

Watching the best of college basketball Battle it out is fun. Just like the CFP is fun. Expanding the tournament was not about “fun.”

 

[SoBeCuse]

My only beef would be if UL gets in over us. I’m cool otherwise and will watch the Tourney in good spirits and not be a little biotch about it.

 

[DoctorBombay]

It's a national championship tournament. The teams that deserve to be in are the teams that have proven themselves to be among the best teams in the country over the course of the season. The idea is to get them together in a tournament to determine the best of the best.

The rest of the teams are along for the ride. Some of them are in conferences that shouldn't even be in Division 1. they cling to that status in hopes of pulling off an upset that will prevent the sort of confrontation we've waited all year to see. Those teams should be in division 2 or a basketball 1AA where their kids would have a shot at a championship.

Some of them are from legitimate D1A conferences but they were also-rans, clearly not the best team in the conference or close to it. Ironically those are the teams we spend our time talking about this time of year. We don't talk about whether Virginia is better than Villanova or if Michigan State or Kansas could beat those teams. Instead, we obsess over which 20-13 will get in and which will be left out. the fact is none of those teams deserve to be in the tournament. Some of them will wind up in it because we need 68 teams. some will not. barring a fluke, the ones who get in will be gone after the first weekend anyway.

if we don't hear (or read) "Syracuse" tonight, let's not climb out on a ledge. Just sigh and move on. See who wins it this year and dream about next year when maybe we'll 'deserve' it.

 

[Madbiker]

Everyone knew when we lost to the Bonnies it would hurt on Selection Sunday. We knew the loss to ND would hurt us even more. Those 2 losses were killers. This is just what we all hoped wouldn't happen. Those loses are going to be the difference being in or out. We all hoped desperately we would get that huge signature win vs a UNC or Duke to get us in. We didn't earn our way in. When you have a season where you have no OOC wins against a ranked team we are going to be in trouble because we can't bank on beating Duke, UNC, even UVA.

 

[dasher]

My only beef would be if UL gets in over us. I’m cool otherwise and will watch the Tourney in good spirits and not be a little biotch about it.

Me too. And I will say this, it's a national tournament and has national interest because of all of the "undeserving"teams that get in. When Bucknell beats a Kansas, it's great for the tournament and on of the reasons the tournament is so popular. Plus, some teams get a chance to play schools that would never play them on a neutral court. I don't think the OP could be more off base.