A team with an 18-14 will never get a bid

[Bill Marsh]

Remember how Stever kept insisting that Xavier would never get a bid if they finished with an 18-14 record because the committee simply doesn't take teams with records like that?

How about Oklahoma State?

17-13 isn't exactly the same as 18-14. No, the records aren't identical, but it sure is a record like that. Both 4 games over .500 with 1 less win and 1 less loss.

The committee must have settled for them as the last team in an unusual year? An aberration, right?

Nope. Not only did 17-13 Oklahoma State get a bid, they weren't the last team invited. They weren't one of the last 4 invited. They are a 9 seed for goodness sakes.

What Oklahoma State tells us is that Xavier was never in jeopardy. Had they not won any games in the BE tournament and had even lost an extra game down the stretch, they were still getting in. The difference those extra wins made was getting a higher seed. They were not the difference between getting in or being left out.

Xavier was absolutely never on the bubble.

You will find Oklahoma State's record listed on some sites as 18-13 (still very similar to 18-14). The reason for the different listings is that one of OSU's wins was against D-II NW Oklahoma State. But as Stever told us repeatedly with regard to St. John's, D-II wins don't count. So, some sites list them with the D-II win and some list them without it. I'll defer to Stever on this one and list them without it.

I don't know what the obsession of Oklahoma schools like OSU and Tulsa is with playing D-II directional schools in their state. St. John's didn't put a D-II school on their schedule. A tournament committee did. St. John's wasn't padding its schedule, it had no choice but to play the game. But OSU and Tulsa actually went out and scheduled these games. Blatant schedule padding. Crazy decision. Wins like that do absolutely nothing for your credentials. And should you lose the game, they kill your chances of getting a tournament bid as they did for Tulsa. I hope they've all learned their lesson.

[TheBall]

Xavier was a 6 seed. No where close to the bubble

the doom and gloom by some was unwarranted

[stever20]

Xavier was a 6 seed. No where close to the bubble

the doom and gloom by some was unwarranted

Xavier was a 6 seed because they beat Creighton(ok, avoided the bad loss), Butler, and Georgetown.

Xavier would have been at best a 10 or 11 seed, and with this committee who knows.