From the article:

"Do you ever go to work and wonder how the guy that puts documents in the fax machine upside-down gets a promotion while you're fervishly plowing through a huge stack of work on your desk? It's unfair, right? You deserve a reward. You deserve a raise. You're the Middle Tennessee of your place of employment. You deserve to be in the NCAA Tournamemnt! Not the guy at the fax machine! That guy at the fax machine is Western Kentucky."

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/...n-11091116

My desire is with the now field of 68, they should include conference regular season champs as well. Ultimitaly you are telling teams that you can go 0-36 during the regular season, just win the conference tourny and you're in. It makes the regular season worthless.

Win or go home...

68 is more than enough in my opinion. The ugly truth is that Middle had a great team that didn't win when it counted and just about every school has experienced this. If you guys would have lost three or less games you would have gotten into the tourney end story and same with the other teams who think they were left out. UCF just got absolutely dominated by Drexel and UCF is a big bad conference USA team with a top 55 RPI.

I might be in the minority in this but I think they did okay with selections this year and before anyone jumps on me go look at just how many teams with 2-9 losses in there are this year. And winning the NIT would be a great accomplishment for Middle so nothing wrong there. It's loaded with some great teams like Drexel, Stanford, Miss St, and more.

Middle Tennessee had a great season, no doubt. Problem is the SBC is a one bid league right now and they fell prey to that. Unless you play out and only lose 2-3 games, everyone knows that you are going to have to win the conference tourney. There is only one school in the conference that anyone would look at and say they have a long standing basketball history (WKU). The others have had some good runs here and there but not consistently. Generally, our schools are one and done in the tournament. Only 4 teams in the conference had winning records and only 2 won 20+ games. All of that hurts if you don't win the tourney.

Make a run in the NIT and then come back next year and win 26 games and then you will have the committee taking a longer look at you. It doesn't help that you have schools like my Alma Mater who screw the pooch on APR and plays horrendous, or you have a 20+ NIT team from last year that seems to fall apart (FAU) or a team that seemed to be primed but just didn't get it done (North Texas). When 2/3 of the conference is at .500 or below, you aren't going to get any breaks.

Western Kentucky did what they needed to to win the conference tournament. Middle Tennessee did not. Plain and simple.

Ray Harper put it nicely. Their team isn't their overall record right now. They are 7-0 in the past 7 games. 14 of last 16 (?)

And people continually harp on the Sun Belt for being a 1 bid league and the truth usually only the top 10 conferences send multiple teams consistently. You usually have 3 out the SEC, about 8 from the Big East, 3-6 from the ACC, 3-6 from the Big 12, and all the conference champs and a few runner ups.

(03-15-2012 12:43 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  Some leagues don't even get a auto bid to the tourney.

Please tell me which of the 31 leagues doesn't get an automatic bid?

Who did MTSU beat outside of conference that warrants a bid? Ole Miss and UCLA are both BCS team but neither would be considered a "good win" by the selection committee. Same argument for Drexel.

They had a great season but it came down to did they challenge themselves outside of conference.

(03-15-2012 01:12 PM)wh49er Wrote:  Who did MTSU beat outside of conference that warrants a bid? Ole Miss and UCLA are both BCS team but neither would be considered a "good win" by the selection committee. Same argument for Drexel.

They had a great season but it came down to did they challenge themselves outside of conference.

I'm not saying we deserved to be in, but we did "challenge" ourselves in the OOC. Game at Vandy, game at Loyola Marymount, game at UAB, game at Ole Miss, game at UCLA, 2 games vs. Belmont, 2 games vs. Austin Peay (picked to win the OVC over Murray), game at Tennessee State (2-seed from OVC only team to beat Murray. We also played Murray preseason and beat them.

Most of the teams on our schedule just happened to have down years, per their standards.

Other games-- UNC-Greensboro in a tournament, and hosted UT-Martin (our "easy" game)

The losses that kept us out of the tourney were in-conference-- at WesternKy and first-round of the SBC tourney. We probably would have had an at-large had we won the WKU game and lost in the conference championship. Free throws, free throws......

(03-15-2012 01:08 PM)wh49er Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 12:43 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  Some leagues don't even get a auto bid to the tourney.

Please tell me which of the 31 leagues doesn't get an automatic bid?

Wait my bad your right wrong sport.

(03-15-2012 01:51 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 01:08 PM)wh49er Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 12:43 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  Some leagues don't even get a auto bid to the tourney.

Please tell me which of the 31 leagues doesn't get an automatic bid?

Wait my bad wrong sport

Great West, I think

If your team can't take care of business in the conference tourney, what leads you to believe they will in the NCAA tourney?

(03-15-2012 06:52 PM)topper1296 Wrote:  If your team can't take care of business in the conference tourney, what leads you to believe they will in the NCAA tourney?

In 2008-2009, the North Carolina Tar Heels lost in the second round of the ACC tournament and went on to win the national title. It's possible.

(03-15-2012 06:52 PM)topper1296 Wrote:  If your team can't take care of business in the conference tourney, what leads you to believe they will in the NCAA tourney?

V.C.U.

(03-15-2012 08:38 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 06:52 PM)topper1296 Wrote:  If your team can't take care of business in the conference tourney, what leads you to believe they will in the NCAA tourney?

V.C.U.

not so fast my friend.....weak sauce analogy.

vcu has pretty good tournament history. anthony grant had them in the ncaa 2 out of 3 years and shaka won the cbi with them his first season before last season's run.

middle.....tourney history....not a good predictor.

vcu:
jd barnett
sonny smith
jeff capel
anthony grant
shaka smart.

middle:
kermit

not so sure i'd compare middle to vcu. hell....i'm not sure i'd compare us to vcu realistically. felton had a nice run. willard did too. horn underachieved until his last year and we all know what the dummy did.

vcu had built up some legacy points.

(03-16-2012 08:33 AM)dahbeed Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 08:38 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 06:52 PM)topper1296 Wrote:  If your team can't take care of business in the conference tourney, what leads you to believe they will in the NCAA tourney?

V.C.U.

not so fast my friend.....weak sauce analogy.

vcu has pretty good tournament history. anthony grant had them in the ncaa 2 out of 3 years and shaka won the cbi with them his first season before last season's run.

middle.....tourney history....not a good predictor.

vcu:
jd barnett
sonny smith
jeff capel
anthony grant
shaka smart.

middle:
kermit

not so sure i'd compare middle to vcu. hell....i'm not sure i'd compare us to vcu realistically. felton had a nice run. willard did too. horn underachieved until his last year and we all know what the dummy did.

vcu had built up some legacy points.

Not only that but the CAA has gotten some crediability as well. George Mason Final Four in 06. VCU Final Four in 11. ODU winning in the tournament. Five of the twelve teams with 21+ wins. Those are the kind of things that help with the at-large bids.

(03-15-2012 01:48 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  I'm not saying we deserved to be in, but we did "challenge" ourselves in the OOC. Game at Vandy, game at Loyola Marymount, game at UAB, game at Ole Miss, game at UCLA, 2 games vs. Belmont, 2 games vs. Austin Peay (picked to win the OVC over Murray), game at Tennessee State (2-seed from OVC only team to beat Murray. We also played Murray preseason and beat them.

Most of the teams on our schedule just happened to have down years, per their standards.

Other games-- UNC-Greensboro in a tournament, and hosted UT-Martin (our "easy" game)

The losses that kept us out of the tourney were in-conference-- at WesternKy and first-round of the SBC tourney. We probably would have had an at-large had we won the WKU game and lost in the conference championship. Free throws, free throws......

Strength of schedule for MTSU was 203 and Drexel was 238. For an at-large that won't cut it.

(03-16-2012 10:52 AM)wh49er Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 01:48 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  I'm not saying we deserved to be in, but we did "challenge" ourselves in the OOC. Game at Vandy, game at Loyola Marymount, game at UAB, game at Ole Miss, game at UCLA, 2 games vs. Belmont, 2 games vs. Austin Peay (picked to win the OVC over Murray), game at Tennessee State (2-seed from OVC only team to beat Murray. We also played Murray preseason and beat them.

Most of the teams on our schedule just happened to have down years, per their standards.

Other games-- UNC-Greensboro in a tournament, and hosted UT-Martin (our "easy" game)

The losses that kept us out of the tourney were in-conference-- at WesternKy and first-round of the SBC tourney. We probably would have had an at-large had we won the WKU game and lost in the conference championship. Free throws, free throws......

Strength of schedule for MTSU was 203 and Drexel was 238. For an at-large that won't cut it.

"F" the strength of schedule. That is already calculated in the RPI. Losing to terribled-RPI teams like WKU is what got us out of the tourney. Not much more we could have done OOC.

Love that UNCC OOC-- Kennesaw, UNC-Central, #3330 Radford, etc, etc.

(03-16-2012 08:33 AM)dahbeed Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 08:38 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  

(03-15-2012 06:52 PM)topper1296 Wrote:  If your team can't take care of business in the conference tourney, what leads you to believe they will in the NCAA tourney?

V.C.U.

not so fast my friend.....weak sauce analogy.

vcu has pretty good tournament history. anthony grant had them in the ncaa 2 out of 3 years and shaka won the cbi with them his first season before last season's run.

middle.....tourney history....not a good predictor.

vcu:
jd barnett
sonny smith
jeff capel
anthony grant
shaka smart.

middle:
kermit

not so sure i'd compare middle to vcu. hell....i'm not sure i'd compare us to vcu realistically. felton had a nice run. willard did too. horn underachieved until his last year and we all know what the dummy did.

vcu had built up some legacy points.

I already stated that I did NOT think we should have gotten in the NCAA tourney.

When you lose to terrible RPI teams like WKU you do not deserve it.