Winners and losers of Selection Sunday as university basketball ready for the 2021 NCAA Tournament, according to Joey Brackets:
WINNERS: 68 teams, about 1,000 university basketball players and millions of March Madness fans around the world. My co-author David Smale calls Selection Sunday ‘the biggest non-sporting sporting event’ in America. He is not wrong.
LOSERS: In the big picture, no. The world did not stop spinning because we did not have a basketball tournament. And, tragically, we can not bring back any of those we lost in the pandemic just because the Big Dance is back. But we can all smile a little and hope that this NCAA tournament helps in a small way to put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror.
WINNERS: The four top seeds – Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois and Michigan – were selected and placed correctly. It is rare that the line between the elite and very good falls exactly to four teams, but this is the case this year and the selection committee got it right.
LOSERS: Alabama has been good enough to be a number 1 seed in most years, but we have run out of regions. The Crimson Tide will have to be content with the No. 2 in Michigan, and the possibility that the Wolverines will not be at full strength in the later rounds.
WINNERS: The committee also nailed down the top 16 teams, which can be a subtle element that can often set up the entire flow of the tournament. Just as there was an easy point of separation between the no. 1 and no. 2 seeds, the same can be said for the top four lines compared to the rest of the field.
LOSERS: Did the committee lose its cable signal while the Oklahoma States played? The Cowboys were much closer to being a double seed than the number 4 they received. West Virginia, who have beaten the Cowboys twice in the past two weeks, scored a No. 3 series despite leaving the Oklahoma States with 14 spots in the NET. This is a clear sowing error.
WINNERS: Non-Power 5 bubble teams Utah State, Wichita State and especially Drake were treated fairly by the committee. And both Colorado State and Saint Louis made the list of four replacement teams. The next level teams selected should always be commended for these conferences, which should never be called the middle major.
LOSERS: I thought Louisville would get it in front of Wichita State, but the Cardinals really have no argument. Pandemic or not, the Cardinals were of the classic type of “moderate” usually included. Thank you so much to the committee for acknowledging that our planet will only be good with only seven ACC teams in the field (and for not including Duke anywhere).
WINNERS: Hartford’s reluctant coach John Gallagher was convinced his Falcons would play their first NCAA tournament in an opening round. I told him Hartford was going to play Baylor or Illinois. This is Baylor. And, John, do not mess with the braketologist.
LOSERS: I thought my hometown, Drexel Dragons, got a little stiff by falling below the 16-line. The Dragons get Illinois instead of a slightly easier number 2 seed. Regardless, it’s hard to be a loser when you’re in the tournament for the first time in a quarter century.
WINNERS: UConn, Clemson and especially Villanova. Each may have been overseen based on the strength of the conference or recent performance. In the case of the Wildcats, although we predict their number 5 seed correctly, it’s hard to see them playing against it without senior star Collin Gillespie.
LOSERS: LSU, North Carolina, Missouri, Michigan State, UCLA and especially Wisconsin. All the teams join the Oklahoma State in the club “especially underrated”. Metrics are a big part of the equation, but that should not be the whole story.
WINNERS: All of us who are delighted with the biggest sporting event in the world.
LOSERS: Everyone else …
Happy hoops!