Murray State
Murray State had a few bad losses—to Houston and Portland—a disappointing, but not unexpected loss to Xavier and that all sunk its RPI enough to where perhaps they were a longshot.
That said, if the selection committee was looking for a hot team, maybe the Racers were a good choice, since they didn’t lose a game between November 29 (a 93-58 thumping by Valparaiso) and March 7 in the Ohio Valley Conference finals (an 88-87 heartbreaker to Belmont).
That’s 25 straight games, which is the definition of a hot team.
A win in the Ohio Valley final would have given them an automatic bid, so as I said in the introduction, you can take care of not being snubbed by winning, but it seems to me 25 wins is a strong argument that you win games.
How often are 27-6 teams left home? According to ESPN Stats and Information, they are now one of nine (including Colorado State from this year) teams which had 27 or more wins and were left home, since the Tournament expanded in 1985.
For what it’s worth, Murray State players and coaches weren’t the only one outraged by the oversight.
Dick Vitale was not pleased.
I am not Dickie V’s biggest fan (and I am aware that makes me weird) but he’s right. It’s unfair and there were mediocre teams with win-loss records that weren’t impressive sent to the Tournament because of the conferences they play in.
Maybe Murray State isn’t the biggest or best program in college basketball (no maybe—they aren’t). However they played exceptionally well this year and after a somewhat rough start, won 25 games. That is very tough to do—as Kentucky—against anyone. The longer you extend that streak, the more the pressure is on you to keep it going and the more teams give you their best shot to knock you down.
Murray State was never knocked down until that last game.
They should have been sent to the dance.
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