NCAA Tournament 2017: 5 biggest snubs on Selection Sunday

2. Iowa Hawkeyes

More so than the Orange, another major conference team that finished the season with an overall record of 18-14 has a gripe about not being one of the 68 teams selected for the 2017 NCAA Tournament. That would be Peter Jok and the Iowa Hawkeyes. Again, they stand with Syracuse in that their overall record certainly doesn’t jump off of the page at just four games over the .500 threshold. However, that doesn’t speak to how quality of a team they were and what they were able to do to make their case a tournament team.

For starters, you can think the 48th toughest schedule in the country in part for how their overall record shook out. With that being said, they still managed to reel off some heavily impressive wins throughout their play in the Big Ten, including several over teams that did make it into the field of 68. The Hawkeyes notched wins over the Maryland Terrapins, Wisconsin Badgers and Purdue Boilermakers in conference play, in addition to a victory over the rival Iowa State Cyclones earlier in the season.

Yes, they only ranked 71st in terms of RPI at season’s end, but it’s hard to look at what they accomplished and see them on the outside looking in. It’s very similar to the case that Syracuse has. Each team lost probably too many games, but had quality wins to their name across the schedule. Regardless of similarity to the Orange, Jok and the Hawkeyes will be running through the NIT in the postseason, but that shouldn’t be the case.