Early Upsets

The NCAA tournament is always filled with thrilling upsets. Mid-majors always have two or three monumental upsets in the first round of the tournament. This year, two mid-majors upset two higher ranked seeds: 12 seed Western Kentucky beat 5 seed Illinois and 13 seed Cleveland State upset 4 seed Wake Forest.

Western Kentucky dominated most of the game. They were leading 37 to 28 at the half, and led 68-51 late in the game. However, Illinois made a late comeback. Illinois cut the lead to two points with less than a minute left to play in the game, but it was to little to late. The 12 seeded Hilltoppers beat the higher seeded Illinois 76-72 in the first round of the tournament.

The second upset featured an absolute blowout. Cleveland State dominated Wake Forest from the very beginning and eventually won 84-69. Cleveland State took the lead at the beginning of the game and never looked back.

Upsets are always prevalent in every NCAA tournament. This fact is what makes the NCAA tournament great. Mid-major schools always have a chance to upset their higher seeded, power-house opponents. This year was no different. Both Western Kentucky and Cleveland State sent their opponents home early in this year's tournament.

Eliminate Conference Tournaments

This year, three undeserving teams made the field of 65 by receiving the automatic bids that come with winning your respective conference tournaments: Temple, Mississippi State, and Chattanooga. Each of these teams were fortunate enough to make the NCAA tournament by winning their respective conference tournaments. However, none of these teams deserved to make the field of 65 due to their mediocre regular season.

Temple finished the regular season with a record of 19-11 and only two key wins against Penn State and Tennessee. They also finished fourth in the Atlantic Ten Conference. Mississippi State finished 3rd in the SEC West and 6th overall in the SEC. Mississippi State had a record of 19-12 and had no meaningful nonconference wins. The final team is Chattanooga. They finished the regular season with a losing record of 15-16. They also finished 6th in the Southern Conference.

I believe conference tournaments should be eliminated. They serve no purpose. First, the top seeded teams in the conference tournaments have nothing to play for. Teams such as Duke and North Carolina, at the end of the regular season, usually have number 1 seeds locked up whether they win the conference tournament or not. On the other hand, mediocre teams are given the chance to make the NCAA tournament if they simply just win three games in a row. The tournament selection committee is allowing mediocre teams to enter the NCAA tournament by having automatic bids come from conference tournaments. I believe the regular season winners of each conference should get the automatic bids. This way, mid-majors and major conferences, are still represented equally and the selection committee can then weed out the undeserving teams from the field of 65.

#1 Seeds Never Lose

Many teams have tried, every team has failed. Year after year, #16 seeds enter the tournament with the dreams and aspirations of becoming the first #16 seed to ever beat a number one seed. Some teams have come close, but no #16 seed has ever defeated a #1 seed in the first round of the tournament.

Twice in the history of the NCAA tournament has a #16 seed lost by only one point to a number one seed. Both of these games came in 1989. Princeton (#16 seed) lost to Georgetown (#1 seed) 50 to 49. East Tennessee State also lost to the number one seed Oklahoma 72 to 71.

In this year's tournament, two #1 seeds performed very well and two did not. Connecticut and North Carolina blew out their opponents by a combined total of 99 points. Louisville and Pittsburgh, on the other hand, had a harder time with their #16 seed opponents. Louisville won by 20 points, but they only led #16 seed Morehead State by two points at the half. Pittsburgh won by ten points, but the game was played a lot closer than the final score.

Number 16 seeds in the tournament are a combined 0-99 since the expansion of the tournament to 64 teams in 1985. Many teams have come close to winning, but no team has ever won as a #16 seed. This year, both Morehead State and East Tennessee State gave the number one seeds a run for their money, but came up short in the end. This tournament proved to be just another tournament where all four #16 seeds go home in the first round.

Snub Teams

There is always one common denominator in every NCAA tournament: snub teams. Snub teams are teams that are not selected to participate in the tournament, but are deserving due to their complete body of work in the regular season and in their conference tournament.

Only 34 at large teams can make the field of 65. With this limited number of teams getting selected, snub teams are always prevalent during the tournament selection process.

This year, many teams were snubbed by the tournament committee: Saint Mary's and San Diego State. Saint Mary's finished the year 26-6, and 10-4 in their conference. The team finished second in the West Coast Conference behind Gonzaga. Saint Mary's finished the season with an RPI of 48 and a strength of schedule of 159. Saint Mary's had key wins against Providence, San Diego State, Southern Illinois, and Utah State.

The second snub team was San Diego State. This team finished fourth in the Mountain West Conference. San Diego State had an overall record of 24-9 and a conference record of 11-5. Key wins for San Diego State included Utah, New Mexico, and UNLV. Their best nonconference victory came against Cal State Northridge. San Diego State finished with a strength of schedule of 35 and an RPI of 35.

However, each team was not selected into the tournament due to flaws in their resumes. Saint Mary's had very good key wins and a very good RPI, but their strength of schedule hurt them. Rarely do teams with a strength of schedule higher than 100 get into the field of 65. San Diego State had a very high RPI and strength of schedule. However, their non-conference schedule hurt them. Their one quality non-conference win came against Cal State Northridge.

Overall, both of these teams deserved to be in the field of 65. Each team had flaws, but their strengths greatly outweighed these flaws. Saint Mary's and San Diego State are the two major snub teams from the 2008-2009 college basketball season.

Eliminate The Play-In Game

Every year, two teams will be forced to participate in a play-in game before they can enter the NCAA basketball tournament. Each year, two mid-major teams play for the right to play the top #1 seed in the tournament.

This extra game came into existence in 2001 when the MWC (Mountain West Conference) split from the WAC (Western Athletic Conference). This created a major dilemma because the split added an extra automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The number of automatic bids in the tournament grew from 30 to 31. To compensate for this new automatic bid, the tournament commitee decided to have a play-in game.

This year, the two teams that competed in the play-in game were Morehead State and Alabama State. Morehead State dominated the whole game and won 58 to 43. Morehead State will play Louisville in the first round on Friday March 20.

I believe the tournament committee should eliminate the play in game. The committee should simply eliminate one at large team in order to compensate for the extra automatic bid. If you eliminate one at large team, there would still be 33 at large teams in the field.

Furthermore, the loser of this game works hard all season long to get to the NCAA tournament, and then they are quickly exited by a meaningless game. This game eliminates the dreams of so many young college players. The losing team does not get the chance and the glory of playing in the first round of the tournament. Alabama State was seeking its first Division One postseason win. Instead, they were defeated and sent home without ever officially entering the NCAA tournament.

Finally, every year the two teams that play-in the game are mid-majors. These mid-majors won their conference and they are participating in a play-in game. If the tournament is going to have this game, they should pick the last two at large teams making it into the tournament. If they did that this year, Arizona and Wisconsin, would be playing in the play-in game.