Spike wrote:There is literally nothing trolling about that post. It is a long standing misconception that Missouri State got screwed but that is simply not the case. Their resume was no where near tournament worthy.
Creighton was #41 in the RPI. They went 5-5 against the RPI top 50 in conference. Like Missouri State they played one top 50 team in OOC, excpet they won. Like Missouri State they lost in the 1st round of the Valley tournament. Like Missouri State their OOC schedule outside of that game was not good. Do you think they got screwed too?
No. This is all just revisionist history. They look at the RPI and go "Hinson was screwed" but when you look at the actual resume, you realize that it was awful.
Except that there were three teams ,most notably Air Force, that had even worse resumes and got at large bids that year. The fact MSU played 11 games against top 50 teams regardless of the fact they were mostly Valley teams is significant; it's not supposed to matter who the teams were or where they come from, just the objective ranking they have. How many Valley teams or even other midmajors play 11 games against top 50 teams in a year. There were a number of pundits who ran blind picks for the tournament following that snub,using known criteria, and in each one MSU got picked ahead of a couple other teams that made the field. You're using the same rationale that the committee uses every year to explain why top level MM are snubbed, looking for reasons to keep them out rather than looking at the positives they use to put low hanging P-5 teams in.How many times does a team from the ACC or Big 12 who has a very mediocre resume get in based on they had 3-4 top 50 wins in conference, most often home games. MSU had warts, no doubt, but they had done more than a few other teams that got bids.
That probably wasn't Barry's worst snub however, his very first year following Alford's team that had made the sweet 16 may have been worse. His team finished 2nd in the MVC, made the championship game in the MVC tourney, but played a dreadful game against Creighton and did not get a bid. In retrospect, that team had a
better RPI, better conference record and finish, and better showing in the MVC tournament than Alford's team did. But they didn't have any really outstanding wins and played their worst game in front of everyone in the tourney final. Barry always had a unique timing for losing really critical games. i'm far from a Barry apologist, and like I said , he had a knack for losing critical games. but he had at least two and possibly three teams that coulda/ shoulda got bids based on who else did those years.
The Bear is the largest carnivore on the North American continent; beware the Bear!
