I don't care what Lunardi says......

[Seth C]

Originally posted by BBBLazing:
I think they should reconsider the idea of automatic qualifiers for winning a conference tournament. No way Belmont should get in and Murray not. But, I don't see two teams from that conference. What if South Carolina wins SEC tournament, they steal a bid from someone else. It seems unfair to take a team's entire year and put it on one game (Murray). Having said that, win and you get in. I guess I see both sides.

Blame the OVC for that. The conference decides whether to give their bid to the regular season champion or the conference tournament champion. Hell, they don't even have to have a conference championship. You know why they all give it to the tournament champ? Because if they didn't no one would care about their little tournament.

But, they could...if they wanted to.

 

[revcort]

I hate it for Murray State. I really do. I grew up about 45 minutes from their campus and had several friends who attended there, and even a guy from my high school who played for them.

I will say this on their behalf... that unbeaten regular season and top 25 ranking is rare for a team in one of these smaller conferences. There could be an exception made by the committee.

Trouble is, the OVC has always been a one bid conference. And, as others have said, they haven't played or beaten anyone of note nationally.

As for Indiana, they have a better resume than Murray st, but my opinion is that they don't belong unless they can win several games in the tournament, and I don't see that happening. I think they'll be out when the time comes.

 

[Saguaro Cat]

Originally posted by BBBLazing:
I think they should reconsider the idea of automatic qualifiers for winning a conference tournament. No way Belmont should get in and Murray not. But, I don't see two teams from that conference. What if South Carolina wins SEC tournament, they steal a bid from someone else. It seems unfair to take a team's entire year and put it on one game (Murray). Having said that, win and you get in. I guess I see both sides.

You know how there's talk about expanding the tournament for everyone.well this is what keeps us from needing going through with that stupid idea. Right now we are in a tournament that everyone is in. And in a week it becomes double elimination for a select few. Murray state was in the tourney but they lost. They can't argue they didn't get a chance and neither can Belmont or say Morehead.

I know it's in unAmerican to be satisfied, but right now the basketball tournaments, be it national or conferences, are all done right. Selection and automatic bids and seeding and regionals and not reseeding the final four. I don't think they need to monkey with any part of it. (Except get rid of at large play in and go back to 66 teams).

 

[K-Town Kat]

To say a team with one top 100 win deserves an at-large tourney bid is laughable.

 

[fredmanthecatfan]

Here's my take: conference tournaments are a part of March Madness. If you play in a week conference, and you don't have some strong ooc wins, your conference tournament is a series of play in games for the dance. The regular season is just that. Post season, including conference tournament is win and advance or go home. Maybe it is a sour ending for the racers this year, but if UK goes into the title game 39-0 and loses, we don't get to say, "we are the champs since no one else won 39 games".

Of course, if we were to lose in the sect, our regular season dominance would still matter for us, but that is because we beat quality teams during our season. I like conference tournaments. It allows grace for teams who got off to a crappy start but got better at the end of the season. Every team that plays in a conference tournament is in the hunt. At the same time, your upper echalon teams that played a good schedule wI'll get in based off of their regular season. This year it might suck for the racers, but they shoud have won if they wanted to advance.

 

[LadyCaytIL]

Dont be mad at the NCAA , the OVC or the selection committee , be mad at Murray State for playing a pathetic schedule and most importantly, playing REALLY bad defense against Belmont.

 

[KentuckyWildcat4Life]

The number 25 team in the nation deserves a bid to the dance. They lost the game on a 3 point shot with 3 seconds to play after the zebras stopped the game to address a clock issue.(changed the flow of the game)
Im sorry but id rather see this Murray st. team in vs clappy the clown and his red retards.

 

[Violent Cuts]

They never were or will be the #25 team in the nation.

 

[The_Answer1313_rivals]

Originally posted by KentuckyWildcat4Life:
The number 25 team in the nation deserves a bid to the dance. They lost the game on a 3 point shot with 3 seconds to play after the zebras stopped the game to address a clock issue.(changed the flow of the game)
Im sorry but id rather see this Murray st. team in vs clappy the clown and his red retards.

Just because the polls ranked them in the Top 25 cause they won a bunch of games in a row doesn't mean they actually are one of the Top 25 teams in the nation.

Kenpom = 77th
Sagarin = 67th

In fact go here http://www.masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm

Or here http://bracketmatrix.com/

No one thinks they belong.

 

[CATSrock_rivals215465]

Yes Vandalay, Murray is/was the #25 team in the nation despite what YOU think. The coaches voted for them as well.

I hope they get in because the early OOC losses are not an indication of how good this team is right now. I would much rather see Murray and other mid majors get a shot over a 5/6/7 from a major conference.

 

[KyCatFan1]

I think all conferences should use the regular season champs as the automatic bid. Keep the conference tournaments for improving your seeding or playing your way off the bubble.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Violent Cuts]

They weren't the 25th BEST team at any point, regardless of what anyone is voting. People are on here every week criticizing the polls, but now it's a metric we should be using for bubble teams? A little hypocritical if you ask me.

Also,

Games vs. RPI top 100:

Murray State 3 (1-2). They haven't played anyone in the top 120 since December.
Indiana 19 (8-11) with the Big 10 tournament left to play

But hey, reward Murray for winning 25 games in a row against high school competition.

 

[Bluest Member]

I agree,Murray State deserves a bid more than several of these bubble teams they have getting in,fact is Murray State would beat Lil Sister Otis handily

 

[UKWildcats#8]

Originally posted by Vandalayindustries:
They weren't the 25th BEST team at any point, regardless of what anyone is voting. People are on here every week criticizing the polls, but now it's a metric we should be using for bubble teams? A little hypocritical if you ask me.

Also,

Games vs. RPI top 100:

Murray State 3 (1-2). They haven't played anyone in the top 120 since December.
Indiana 19 (8-11) with the Big 10 tournament left to play

But hey, reward Murray for winning 25 games in a row against high school competition.

It's the same absurd argument people used for rewarding Gonzaga a 1 seed before they lost to BYU last week. Obviously Murray State is an even more extreme example as Gonzaga did have a few "quality" wins relatively speaking in UGA, St. John's, SMU and UCLA OOC. Not one seed caliber, but not far off at 1 loss, a solid 2 seed, as they are now.

 

[Bardstown]

Murrays out, sorry.

 

[fuzz77]

Originally posted by WildmanWilson:
How did he become the expert of brackets anyway? He starts long before the tournament with brackets than mean nothing and are nowhere to being right. Whats the point? I often wonder how much weight his brackets have when the committee places everyone.

Lunardi's brackets have zero effect or weight weight with the selection committee, they are merely for entertainment purposes only. He puts out brackets for the same reasons people write books...so people will read and discuss them. That's what writers do.

That said, Lunardi is incredibly accurate with who he says makes the tourney...he is rarely off more than 1 team.

 

[HartcoCat]

"Here's my take: conference tournaments are a part of March Madness. If you play in a week conference, and you don't have some strong ooc wins, your conference tournament is a series of play in games for the dance. The regular season is just that. Post season, including conference tournament is win and advance or go home".


I've always looked at this way also. Murray was in yesterday and playing. They got beat and now are going home. The Big Dance has already started.

 

[BoulderCat_rivals187983]

I agree. I also think the NCAA should change it so the regular season conference champion gets the automatic bid, and then extend a 2nd bid if the tournament champion ends up being different. Of course that will never happen because it would inevitably knock some of the Big 5 teams out. Just like what would happen if Illinois St ends up beating N Iowa tonight. I'm not in favor of it, but maybe they should just add another round, and expand the thing to 128 teams. Or possibly bump it to 96, and give the top 32 seeds a 1st round bye.

I'm not going to give up on Murray St getting a bid, but I'd have to agree it's probably a long shot. Really tough break for them.

 

[ukalum_rivals311718]

Just to clarify, since some people in this thread don't understand. The conferences, themselves, determine their own automatic qualifiers, not the NCAA. The NCAA doesn't require a conference tournament. The Ivy league doesn't have one. Only a few years ago, the PAC-12 and the Big-10 didn't have one.

I know what you're thinking. "Well the Ivy league only has 8 teams, so they can't have a conference tournament." Yes they can. The 12 team requirement was required by the football people in order to have a conference championship game.

The Big-12 only has 10 teams, and it has a conference tournament. After South Carolina dropped out of the ACC in 1970, the ACC had a conference tournament with only 7 teams.

 

[CATSrock_rivals215465]

There is more to evaluating this than RPI and SOS. Every year, we have a VCU, George Mason, Valpo, Davidson - teams that were probably not ranked but made a big splash. My point is that I'd rather see a hot team from a conference known to pull NCAA upsets over a team like Indiana that is going the wrong direction in the last 10+.