The road to 2 NCAA bids

[ColonialBulldog]

And Gonzaga (another double bye team) is locked in a battle with San Francisco. Double byes are dangerous. They are not the answer.

So Gonzaga actually has a *triple* bye in the WCC tournament, and they have for decades. I think this is the perfect format for the WCC given their conference's history. They had one powerhouse that the conference needed to be in the tournament and in the early days of Gonzaga's dynasty could not afford the 1 v 8 upsets the MVC just had. The triple bye ensures that if an upset happens, its only going to happen against a 2-4/5 seed. In practical effect Gonzaga has played in the championship game every year for decades.

I don't think the same logic translates for the MVC. They've been a multi-bid league up until very recently. Further, there isn't a single program that is dwarfing the others in this conference. Finally, this year tripled the amount of wins by a 7-10 seed on Friday... a clear aberration. I say stick with the current format for now. But if the trend of one-bid continues for a few more years, then I will probably change my tune. This conference is just too good in March to be relegated to "one-bid league" status.

[Dawgbit]

I guess this is why the OVC gives their #1 & #2 a double bye, even though they have only 8 teams.

I like the double bye idea. What would have to happen for the Valley to move to this?

And why in the F would we want to emulate the OVC? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

[usmcsaluki]

I found this interesting, and posed the question to Lunardi on Twitter but obviously don't expect him to respond:

"The NET rankings are a primary tool the NCAA selection committee uses to evaluate a team for the NCAA tournament."

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-me ... le-tuesday

How does Indiana (60 NET) rank as one of Lunardi's last four in while he has UNI (48 NET) as the #8 team left out? If NET is the "primary" tool for evaluating a team, then what outside of bias is overruling the NET?

[BCPanther]

Three amazing thing is that the first 2 1/2 months of UCLAs season never happened

[VUGrad1314]

And because of those late struggles neither did the first 3.5 months of UNI's season... It must be nice to be part of the favored ruling class...

[Blers42]

I found this interesting, and posed the question to Lunardi on Twitter but obviously don't expect him to respond:

"The NET rankings are a primary tool the NCAA selection committee uses to evaluate a team for the NCAA tournament."

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-me ... le-tuesday

How does Indiana (60 NET) rank as one of Lunardi's last four in while he has UNI (48 NET) as the #8 team left out? If NET is the "primary" tool for evaluating a team, then what outside of bias is overruling the NET?

It doesn’t make any sense, also nice to see a fellow Marine on here.

[usmcsaluki]

I found this interesting, and posed the question to Lunardi on Twitter but obviously don't expect him to respond:

"The NET rankings are a primary tool the NCAA selection committee uses to evaluate a team for the NCAA tournament."

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-me ... le-tuesday

How does Indiana (60 NET) rank as one of Lunardi's last four in while he has UNI (48 NET) as the #8 team left out? If NET is the "primary" tool for evaluating a team, then what outside of bias is overruling the NET?

It doesn’t make any sense, also nice to see a fellow Marine on here.

Right back at ya!

[Bradleyfan1]

Nebraska beating Indiana tonight would help UNI. They need lots of help and thats a start.

[VUGrad1314]

Go Pitt!

Go DePaul!

Go Nebraska!

Just to name a few

[VUGrad1314]

I'm not going to do myself any favors by saying this because it's probably not going to be a popular opinion especially among UNI fans but this is something that needs to be said.

Let's be real though UNI didn't do themselves any favors.

They blew the West Virginia game.

They were average away from the McLeod Center (I know it's a tough conference to win on the road and a high parity league but four road losses is just too many).

They could have played 13 games They chose to only play 12 OOC. You couldn't have taken an extra buy game with this team?

They wasted TWO OOC slots on non-D1s. They couldn't have started a series with an upper tier SOCON team or Murray\Belmont or NKU\Wright State or went out west to play a MWC\WCC school or take a buy game if necessary to get yourselves an extra Q1 or at least Q2 opportunity?

UNI underscheduled like St Mary's often did before Gonzaga held their feet to the fire on scheduling and it cost them just as it's going to cost UNI. I hope they take this year as a lesson and come after it hard next year by scheduling better. St Mary's didn't win their auto bid this year but they're going to be fine NOT because they play Gonzaga and BYU but because they did what they needed to do to put together a challenging non conference slate and won most of those games. (Wisconsin 24 Utah State 40 Arizona State 52 Nevada 89 and Cal 148 were their best non conference wins). UNI had three good games and then Northern Colorado 100. Everything else was not good. Yes they got bit by CUSA teams not being good (Old Dominion and Marshall) but they also unnecessarily put too many eggs into the basket of those teams needing to be good for their non-conference resume to be strong.

It's true that they did not get a lot of support in the non con from the rest of the conference (Valpo Loyola Evansville Indiana State Missouri State and Illinois State all blew important opportunities in the non conference while SIU (understandably) tanked in the non-con. Had we gotten even a handful of those it would likely have been a different story on UNI. But if they are blaming the conference for their misfortune they have absolutely no right and no standing to do so.

We as mid majors don't have the luxury of scheduling some BS in the non conference like non D1s and perennially bad teams and then relying on a couple of games and our conference schedule to save us. We need to get aggressive and fight for our existence as a multibid conference if that is what we want to be. It's not going to be handed to us as should be totally evident by now. St Mary's got the message and St Mary's got it done. UNI or any MVC team can too. They just have to do it. There are several venues in the area where you can play a P5 opponent on a neutral floor. Do it. Whatever it takes to put together an at large worthy schedule. UNI has an at large caliber team coming next year. Loyola has an at large caliber team next year. I would argue that Valpo and Indiana State have at large caliber teams next year. Bradley and Missouri State too. We just have to go get it done in the non-conference so that whoever wins in St Louis won't hurt somebody else who is in position.