TSU Gets A Lowly No. 16 Seed, But They’re The Only Houston Team Dancing
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TSU might have been a better seed if they had kept their best player (Derrick Griffin I think?). He’s a 6-7 forward who can jump out the gym, but he quit the team when conference season began to concentrate on an NFL career instead. I doubt they can stay within 20-25 points of North Carolina.
I think the only time a SWAC team was anything but a #16 seed was when TSU was a #15 when they almost knocked off Arkansas in 1995.
We had at least one “quality win,” over Rhode Island.
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…and Vermont.
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Maybe, just maybe had UH beaten SMU at home, they would of probably been the last team in the tournament.
American mostly sends around 4 teams dancing every year. Only 2 this year. Had to do more about how good Cincy & SMU were. 2 top 20 teams.
And the Big East has 7 teams in the tournament. I just don’t believe that the Big East is so much better than the AAC that they should have 5 more teams in the tournament than the AAC.
Big problem with the American this year was:
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UCONN’s struggles hurt the conference as a whole. They were expected to be a top 25 team this year and weren’t. Because of that, everyone else’s SOS was hurt and it gave each team 1-2 less games against a top 50 opponent. If UCONN wins more, Houston has a better chance.
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Temple’s struggles hurt the conference. They were supposed to be a decent, maybe top 100 team. They weren’t and floundered badly.
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USF should have at least been a top 200 team, but everything imploded with the recruiting scandal, the fired coach, McMurray transferring, and just a disaster of a season. They were ranked 316 in the final RPI which gave the conference 3 teams above 200 (Tulane, ECU, and USF).
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OOC scheduling. On the women’s side, they’ve been pushing for better OOC scheduling for conference members and they were able to get 6 teams in postseason tournaments including 4 in the NCAA. Same discussion needs to happen on the men’s side. Cincy, UCONN, Tulsa, and Temple were the only teams who played a top 100 OOC schedule. Houston just missed at 102 and SMU was 139. UCF, Memphis, ECU, Tulane, and USF all played OOC schedules ranked above 200; ECU and USF played schedules ranked in the 300s. When teams play cupcake OOC schedules, it hurts the rest of the conference as it brings everyone’s RPI down. Teams have got to play respectable schedules.
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Conference just couldn’t beat Top 50 teams. Not one school finished with a winning record against Top 50 teams. Of course, if Houston beats UCONN, that changes things as that loss knocked UH to 54. Cincy/SMU probably move up a seed line if UH wins and the Coogs may be in the tourney right now. Still, the conference went 12-51 against Top 50 opponents; that’s not good. By contrast, the Big East was 54-69 against Top 50 opponents.
Hopefully, this is just a down year for the conference, but I would have Wichita State on the phone now to get them to help with schedule strength. USF, ECU, and Tulane look helpless for the near future; Temple may not be able to turn it back around nor may Tulsa. Hopefully Memphis and UCF continue to get better with their established coaches and hopefully Houston continues to rise while SMU doesn’t fall off.
There are couple of big name teams within a few hours of UH that wishes they were at least good enough to be invited to play in the NIT. I am not bragging about the NIT but I will gladly take a NIT invite over not getting an invite.
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Cool little graphic depicting who went where from what Conference:
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