Bonnies Screwed on Selection Sunday
College basketball in so many ways feels so wrong tonight and that makes me incredibly sad.
When I woke up this morning I was oddly confident in SBU’s at-large chances. I thought even in a worst case scenario the Bonnies would wind up with a play in game in Dayton. Granted I didn’t feel so great Friday night, but after SBU seemingly had a number of things go their way in terms of competition, I felt really good about today.
By the time the selection show had started I had once again gone over every bracket imaginable online. Not only were were in, but we weren’t even on the bubble in a vast majority of brackets. It seemed it would take a historic snub to leave us out in the field. Our resume was very strong.
After the bracket was halfway released I started to feel a little uneasy, but was still confident. We had won the A10. Had a top 30 RPI. A good record vs. top 100 teams. No A10 champ, to my knowledge was ever left out. And teams with a top 30 RPI are maybe left out once a decade. The numbers made me feel good. I kept thinking about all the experts that had us in.
Then a “leaked bracket” was released minutes later.
At first I called Bullshit. But then it spread like wildfire on Twitter. By the time they came back to North Carolina’s match-up and the bracket was right I almost puked.
I knew the Bonnies had just become this year’s biggest NCAA snub and it was as sickening a feeling as I’ve ever had as a sports fan.
I’ve never waited on a selection Sunday with nerves, and I never want to again. Because after hearing names like Syracuse, Michigan and Tulsa getting in I’m not watching a second of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
I don’t care to watch anymore college basketball if it doesn’t involve my team, the one that just got jobbed.
The selection committee’s decision to leave out the Bonnies likely speaks of a few things.
First, they don’t give a shit about RPI. How could they? They let Tulsa (58) in and Pittsburgh (52) and Michigan (57) and Temple (60, as a 10 SEED!) and Syracuse (71)…
Second, they don’t think the Atlantic 10 is a very good basketball league. Because how on God’s green Earth could you leave out a team that one a top seven league in America? But Tulsa, they finished 5th in the powerful AAC with a 12-6 record and a putrid RPI….they’re in. We won’t get into how there’s an incredibly disgusting tie between Tulsa and the head of the selection committee…but there is.
Thirdly, they are money hungry bastards like we knew they were, but maybe forgot (I did). They want Michigan in. And Syracuse in and so on.
Because as much as they love a Cinderella story for ratings, what they love even more is letting in huge schools with massive alumni bases who play in power five conferences and the like. The NCAA is a corrupt as FIFA and anyone with a half a brain knows it. Again, I happened to forget this but tonight not only reminded me it hit me over the head and nearly knocked me out.
They don’t want St. Bonaventure in the field; that’s now a fact.
This evening has forever changed how I will look at selection Sunday.
Almost every “bracket expert” had us in. I won’t go into the hundreds of Tweets that chronicled our complete historic screw job by the NCAA stating record breaking facts in support of our team. Every selection Sunday from now until the day I die I’ll remember that this is a sham, that somewhere out there in the country some small school and their fans will have the hearts ripped out of their chest and stomped on by the NCAA who only gives a damn about money. I’ll think of that team and their fans and know their pain as only a fan of our team could.
If you want to say that this team knocked themselves out of the field on Friday night when they lost to Davidson I’d argue that every metric would say otherwise.
But Tulsa is freaking awful. Vanderbilt stinks. Michigan didn’t earn it and neither did Wichita State or that Jim Bey-whine and Syracuse.
Usually I’m all about saying, “the refs didn’t decide the game” or “it’s not the system”.
But not tonight.
Marcus Posley and Dion Wright, our two seniors deserved more than anyone to play in an NCAA game this season and they got screwed and it makes me sick to my stomach. I said on Twitter I hope the school says no to an NIT bid (I actually don’t even know that they can) but I’ll take that back because those two deserved to play again. They deserved a chance to play for a championship. They EARNED that right this season when they won an A10 title and beat St. Joe’s twice, and won at Dayton and beat GW and won 10 of 11 games.
But instead they’ll play in the NIT against North Florida or some other team no one cares about.
Shame on you NCAA, you suck.
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Even Marcus Posley knows this. As he said in their presser, “It’s all politics, it’s all it is, it’s tough…but it’s really not in our control. To be honest I really didn’t think they would show any type of love for this school, and that’s a shame.’
Categories: Editorial
Well said!
Devastated, really hurts bad!
Wrong about not giving a s*** about the RPI. They only give a s*** about it when it serves their purposes!!! How many times did I hear Castiglione refer to record against “Top 50”. What was that in reference to? THE RPI!!! They didn’t do their research. They were lazy and/or in bed with their friends and didn’t care about our institution in the end. Typical money hungry bastiges!! The NCAA and CBS can all go screw themselves!!!
Let’s stop whining and start winning.
Win the NIT!
I am a Umass fan and I fucking hate you people. With that said, you guys got boned harder than any team has ever been bones before. They should have been a 9 or 10 seed. What a joke
Love this post. Thanks bud.
I will be there for the NIT no matter what!!! These guys deserve my support!!! They earned all of our support this year and the Powers that be don’t deserve them!!!
By the “powers that be”, of course, I mean the NCAA and all its pals they are in bed with….
Didn’t St. Bonaventure lose to Syracuse? How did they earn a spot over the Orange?
With that logic, St. John’s and Georgetown belong in the tournament over Syracuse.
St. John’s and Georgetown weren’t remotely close to being Tournament teams. If they were and had been put ahead of Cuse, Orange fans would have no room to complain. They weren’t.
But nice false equivalency.
Burnbaby, and Cuse didnt have a resume remotely comparable to SBU. Most honest Orange fans know they shouldn’t be in, much less a 10 with a 71 RPI? SBU was a top 30, and was better in every category. Your argument would make sense if SU had, say a 35 RPI, and they got in instead of Bonnies. One game, a close one at that, doesn’t overcome the difference in resumes.
And they fact that you accuse others of straw man arguments, when offering one yourself, only proved you must be a Cuse grad.
Lame
I find it funny that a Cuse fan comes on here and comments. It’s funny cause that game which SU barely won was hosted at the Carrier Dome. SU in their right minds wouldn’t want to step onto the Reilly Centers court. They’d get laughed at and this team as hot as they’ve been would’ve stomped them. On top of that if they think there little “rivalry” with Duke was bad (even though it’s not really a rivalry and not comparable even close to their real rival UNC) the student section and all the Bonnies fans would be even louder.
From reading your tag name, and from the tone of your passive aggressive behavior, you might need this link below:
https://www.dred.com/uk/home-std-test.html
Head to head not as important as overall body of work. Bonnies beat st joe’s twice and they are an 8
Where was that game played? When was it played (November). Comparative scores are only for people like yourself to lazy to do research. But if you want to play that game look at the team’s we beat that all got in the tournament. Go ahead. Check your app. We will wait for you.
This hurts more than anything since Bob Lanier got his knee injury in 1970. That we didn’t make the field is absurd and speaks volumes about the obvious difference between their announced standards and criteria and what are actually put to
Use to select the field. I will join you in not watching a single game of this sham of a tournament. Why bother? It’ll just come down to NC and Kansas or Michigan State again anyway.
Can’t disagree. But losses to LaSalle and then Davidson in the tourney with the game in hand, and early season loss to the Cuse team they could’ve beat, Bona dug its own grave. They had to prove their worth because of its size. Nothing more.
I think winning the other 10 games, in that 12 game stretch, dug themselves out whatever “grave” you are talking about?! When you go 14-4 in conference play, and win 22 games on your way to winning Co-Champs of the Conference, you’ve had one hell of a season!.. And anyone that says our OOC did us in, nope, we can’t make bigger programs come to the Reilly Center, and 8-3 (with 2 opponents winning their Conference Championship, and 2 others being the Runner-ups) you’ve done pretty well there too!.. Hey I wonder if our AD can be on the NCAA Committee, kindof like how Tulsa has theirs on it?!
That is utter BS. Everyone has some dubious losses. Even the #1 seeds. I’m a Canes fan as well and we lost to Northeastern at home. To say that the huge road wins the Bona’s had get wiped out because of Lasalle and Davidson has me question the entire selection process. Why do we have to be perfect and everyone else gets to stub their toe?
Amen. I would add Monmouth to our club.
Let’s start a riot
lets just go and win the NIT…hell we don’t have to even leave NYS to win this, 3 at the Reilly and 2 at MSG…
I made the comment, and subsequently heard similar remarks from others, to the extent that the Selection Committee was essentially sucking off Boeheim. They’re a bunch of whores.
Seriously though, the NCAA loves a Cinderella story, so one wonders why they would stick it to the Bonnies so badly. I guess it loves ratings and money much more.
And in retrospect, I’m probably more pissed about Tulsa making it than Syracuse. But I’m still pissed.