Tourney talk
Some teams left out, others out of left field
Posted: Monday March 08, 1999 06:57 PM
What team will be picked on as this year's least deserving recipient of an at-large bid? The University of Alabama-Birmingham. The Blazers had only the fourth-best record in Conference USA and had two bad losses in mid-February to Memphis and South Florida.
Another questionable invitee is Oklahoma, which finished in a three-way tie for second place in the Big 12, but lost three of its last four. And New Mexico proved that RPI rankings are not nearly as important as people tend to believe. The Lobos were ranked 75th in the computer because of a ridiculously weak schedule, but they snared an at-large bid anyway. Don't ask me how.
Snub hubbub
Which team can make the best case for being unfairly snubbed? California did well in its nonconference games, but the Bears didn't take care of business in the Pac-10, where they finished fifth. Ditto for Wake Forest, which was one win away from locking up a bid but instead fell to North Carolina State in the ACC Tournament.
That leaves Xavier. The Musketeers went 12-4 in the Atlantic 10 and 21-10 overall and lost to Temple in the conference tournament -- no shame in that. Xavier was apparently hurt by Rhode Island's surprising march to the A-10 tourney championship.
Bracket racket
The most relieved team in the field of 64 might be St. John's. The Red Storm could have easily been the No. 2 seed in the East. That would have put them in the same region as Duke, and in Boston for the first two rounds, where St. John's coach and Boston native Mike Jarvis would have been swarmed by the local press. Instead, the Red Storm were shipped to the South and into a possible date with Auburn, the weakest of the four No. 1 seeds.
Finally, here are the candidates for first-round upsets: Delaware, a winner of 13 straight, could topple Tennessee, a first-round loser in the SEC tourney. Detroit will give UCLA fits, especially if Baron Davis' bruised toe isn't completely healed. And Valparaiso, everybody's favorite Cinderella a year ago, has a realistic shot at knocking off Maryland, which looked dispirited in its loss to North Carolina on Saturday.
Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Seth Davis covers the college basketball beat and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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