Selection Sunday winners and losers as college basketball prepares for the 2021 NCAA tournament, according to Joey Brackets:
WINNERS: 68 teams, approximately 1,000 college basketball players and millions of March Madness fans worldwide. My co-author, David Smale, calls Selection Sunday “America’s biggest non-sporting event”. He’s not wrong.
LOST: In the general picture, none. The world kept on spinning because we didn’t have a basketball tournament. And tragically, we can’t bring back any of those we lost in the pandemic just because Big Dance is back. But we can all smile a little and hope that this NCAA tournament will somehow help put the COVID-19 in the rear view mirror.
WINNERS: The first four seeds – Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois and Michigan – were selected and placed correctly. It is rare for the line between the elite and the very good to fall exactly after four teams, but this is the case this year and the selection committee got it right.
LOST: Alabama was good enough to be the No. 1 seed in most years, but we ran out of regions. Crimson Tide will have to settle for being No. 2 in the Michigan bracket and with the possibility that the Wolverines will not be at full strength in the last few rounds.
WINNERS: The committee also appointed the first 16 teams, which can be a subtle element that generally defines the entire course of the tournament. Just as there was a convenient point of separation between No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, the same can be said for the first four rows compared to the rest of the field.
LOST: Did the committee lose its cable signal while Oklahoma State was playing? The Cowboys were much closer to being a 2-seed than the No. 4 they received. West Virginia, which the Cowboys have won twice in the past two weeks, took third place, despite being behind Oklahoma State by 14 points on the NET. This is a clear propagation error.
WINNERS: Teams that are not part of Power 5, Utah State, Wichita State and especially Drake, were treated fairly by the committee. And both Colorado State and Saint Louis made the list of the four replacement teams. Whenever these conferences, which should never be called mid-major, have the next-level teams selected, they should be commended.
LOST: I thought Louisville would get ahead of the state of Wichita, but the Cardinals really have no arguments. Pandemic or not, the Cardinals were the classic type of “median major” that is usually included. Congratulations to the committee for recognizing that our planet will be fine with just seven ACC teams in the field (and for not including Duke anywhere).
WINNERS: Hartford’s reticent coach John Gallagher was convinced that his Hawks would make their first appearance at an NCAA tournament in an opening round game. I told him that Hartford was going to play in Baylor or Illinois. It’s Baylor. And, John, don’t mess with the Bracketologist.
LOST: I thought the Drexel Dragons in my hometown got a little tense when they dropped below line 16. Dragons get Illinois instead of a marginally easier seed # 2. Regardless, it is difficult to be a loser when you are in the tournament for the first time in a quarter of a century.
WINNERS: UConn, Clemson and especially Villanova. Each may have been supervised based on the strength of the conference or recent performance. In the case of Wildcats, even if we correctly predicted their No. 5 seed, it is difficult to see them playing like this without the senior star Collin Gillespie.
LOST: LSU, North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan State, UCLA and especially Wisconsin. All of these teams join Oklahoma State at the “remarkably underseeded” club. Metrics are a big part of the equation, but they shouldn’t be the whole story.
WINNERS: Each of us who is very happy to have the biggest sporting event in the world back.
LOST: All others …
Happy hoops!