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If there was one bubble team that definitely played its way into the field over the weekend with a win it was Providence. The Friars beat Creighton for the Big East tournament title Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Wellman said the Friars weren't in the field Saturday afternoon before tipoff, meaning Providence had to win to get in.


http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... es-process


I thought this was worth a noted mention. Goes to show the importance of the conference tourneys.

Hats off again to the friars. Thanks for helping to make the league look respectable (and thanks for the tourney credit $)

Wow so this league was one upset away from being a 3 bid league.

not really surprised unfortunately. Considering most had PC has the last team in, and given they were given a 11 seed, it makes sense.

Also, looking at the seed list, Xavier no matter what would have been in the PIG:
http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports. ... seed-list/

41. Dayton
42. Nebraska
43. Providence
44. Tennessee
45. Iowa
46. Xavier
47. North Carolina St.

A PC loss and they're out, and I'm guessing it'd be SMU in their place.

I personally find it offensive that these frauds were going to snub PC. NC state does not belong in this tournament ahead of PC had PC lost. Sorry. Thank God we pulled it off because you could smell the screw job coming from a mile away.

The politics and agendas stink to high heaven, but it's no different than anywhere else in life. The difference is the Big East might still recruit well, be a top ranked RPI conference and compete but we no longer have the political sway or respect and these type of screw jobs will happen every year. And where is Val Ackerman? I hope she's not a church mouse being played by the boys club of other conference heads. I get the feeling she is but I hope I'm dead wrong. We will find out going forward once the football machine starts paying athletes and threatening to split from the NCAA how she plays it for us. Providence needs to win and win often to earn a bigger brand name, because I doubt Marquette or Gtown would have been passed over with a similar resume. Hell they were considered fringe a week ago with a lot less wins and more losses.

I agree, dmac. I felt the Friars were in after they beat St. John's but definitely after beating the Hall. That they had to win the tourney outright in order to get in is ridiculous. I guess they would have had no excuse to keep SMU out. And I agree that ACC clout got NC State their bid.

NC State's inclusion and BYU's seeding are the two great puzzles of this bracket.

XUFan09 wrote:NC State's inclusion and BYU's seeding are the two great puzzles of this bracket.

The committee objectively followed similar criteria this year as they have in the past in terms of teams getting in/out. Only Cal has a legitimate complaint and only NC State was lucky. http://www.unf.edu/~jcoleman/dance.htm (saying that I thought Cal was out in Fla. St. would get in with NC State next out). But I actually think based upon dance card, this is small mistake.

Xavier was the big mistake as it got shafted as they should not have been in the PIG, but should have received an automatic bye. Objectively Xavier ahead of like 8 teams and should have been 10-11 (but as a Dayton fan, I am enjoying this nevertheless). BYU should have been in the PIG, don't get it except that they scheduled OOC really aggressively and I guess committee rewarded that.

ruechalgrin wrote:

XUFan09 wrote:NC State's inclusion and BYU's seeding are the two great puzzles of this bracket.

The committee objectively followed similar criteria this year as they have in the past in terms of teams getting in/out. Only Cal has a legitimate complaint and only NC State was lucky. http://www.unf.edu/~jcoleman/dance.htm (saying that I thought Cal was out in Fla. St. would get in with NC State next out). But I actually think based upon dance card, this is small mistake.

Xavier was the big mistake as it got shafted as they should not have been in the PIG, but should have received an automatic bye. Objectively Xavier ahead of like 8 teams and should have been 10-11 (but as a Dayton fan, I am enjoying this nevertheless). BYU should have been in the PIG, don't get it except that they scheduled OOC really aggressively and I guess committee rewarded that.

From what I can gather the dance card is just for measuring who should be getting into the tournament and not the seeding at all. So to use that dance card to say that about Xavier- not really accurate. Xavier doesn't have a great profile at all. They were 5-9 entering the BET away from Cintas(with 1 of those wins being in Cincy). In a lot of years, a profile like that doesn't get in at all.

And, I'm sorry, but I can't take something seriously that says that Oklahoma St was the last team in the tourney. That is a total joke.

One thing that these seedings tells us- if Marquette beats Xavier, and PC loses in tourney, we would have had only 2 teams in the tourney. we were that close to absolute failure. Of course, on other side, if Georgetown beats DePaul, given we were one of the last 4 out, do we get in giving us 5 possibly?

The spokesman clown on the selection committee is some d-bag from Wake Forest. ACC pr!ck. Freakin NC State shouldn't be anywhere near the tourney, except on NC Central's resume. We need to plant some reliable BE guys on that committee... who represented us in the selection process...? back in the early 80's, the committee was screwing us over, so Gavitt placed himself on the committee and protected us.

stever20 wrote:

ruechalgrin wrote:

XUFan09 wrote:NC State's inclusion and BYU's seeding are the two great puzzles of this bracket.

One thing that these seedings tells us- if Marquette beats Xavier, and PC loses in tourney, we would have had only 2 teams in the tourney. we were that close to absolute failure. Of course, on other side, if Georgetown beats DePaul, given we were one of the last 4 out, do we get in giving us 5 possibly?

agree on the Cowboys (eye test) same with Ville but the cmt was very much in line with rankings with the exception of NC State.

re: your take in Big East dance card:
X, Gtown and Providence all would've had to have lost in first game @ MSG and Johnnies in 2nd game for Big East to have only got 2 in,somone had to win the games and really the Big East tourney results were favorable to the Big East cause. The worst case scenario was for X and Providence not to advance, the risk of having Gtown and Johnnies advancing would've definitely brought more nervous moments in Big East AD offices yesterday.