The 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will not feature some of the elite college basketball schools.
Duke, Kentucky and Louisville are among the best schools that did not participate in the tournament after disappointing 2020-21 seasons.
Blue Devils needed to win or at least make the ACC tournament championship. The team was on the rise after beating Boston College and Louisville, but it didn’t go far after a positive coronavirus test within the team forced them to leave the postseason.
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Duke ended the season 13-11 overall and 9-9 ACC.
The NCAA Selection Committee determined that the team did not do enough to secure a spot in the 68th field. And neither did Kentucky or Louisville.
Kentucky started the season in 10th position in the Top 25 of the Associated Press, but finished 9-16 overall and 8-9 in the SEC. It is the first time that the Wildcats have not made it to the tournament since 2013 and the first time that the school has ended the season with a losing record since 1988-89.
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“My teams played historically as if they lost, they were going for the electric chair,” said Calipari at the end of the season, via Kentucky Sports Radio. “This team does not. [At] Times we did. But maybe we were not physically capable of that. But you know what, here is what I would say. For them, playing as they started that game, then playing the second half the way they played, says something about them. They never give up on anything. They haven’t given up once this year. “
Louisville lost to Duke in the ACC tournament, solidifying the lack of the NCAA tournament.
Chris Mack’s team ended 13-7 with an 8-5 ACC record. The Cardinals could have made it in had it not been for the conference title wins at Big East and Pac-12.
Mitch Barnhart, chairman of the men’s basketball selection committee, said during the selection show that the school’s COVID-19 breaks did not help either.
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“Certainly, breaks were part of that conversation,” he said, via WDRB-TV. “What we realized is that they were being deeply considered in the discussions that we had. The challenge was that there were two teams that held really remarkable tournaments in Georgetown and in the state of Oregon … and, in taking these places, some people had unfortunately, you have the opportunity during the year to put your resume where you want it and at the end of the day, if you’re not where you want it, you’ll have a chance to go to the tournament and guarantee the (automatic qualifier) that and, in the process, they took two bids. “
Each team also decided to resign from the NIT.