2010 NCAA Tournament Snubs
Written by Jack Jones - Google +
An easy way to figure out which teams almost made the 2010 NCAA tournament is to view the top seeds of the NIT brackets as Illinois, Arizona State, Virginia Tech, and Mississippi State all pulled one-seeds in the NIT. Let’s take a look at the case for the teams that got snubbed from the tournament.
1. Mississippi State – The Bulldogs would have been a very talented team and would have had the potential to win a few games in the tournament. This team finished 23-11, but couldn’t pull of the upset yesterday in the SEC Championship game against Kentucky. It’s a shame that Jarvis Varnado, the NCAA’s all-time leading shot blocker, won’t be able to showcase his skills for everyone in the tournament.
2. Illinois – This team was too inconsistent and lost to some teams that they shouldn’t have. On the flip side though they did have some impressive wins, like over Wisconsin on the road and a pair of victories against Michigan State. The double overtime loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament was painful, but the Buckeyes are a solid team and a win there could have been just enough to push the Illini into the dance.
3. Virginia Tech – The Hokies were 10-6 in the ACC and 23-8 overall, but the conference has lost some of it’s luster as the Big East is the new media darling. I would have liked to seen what Malcolm Delaney could have done in the tournament as he put up over 20 ppg. This team just didn’t go out and beat anyone impressive, which is why they are a top-seed in the NIT.
4. Arizona State – The Sun Devils really hurt their chances with a loss in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament. With the turnover from last year’s squad the team struggled early, but came on late with wins in eight of their last 11. A few of those wins were quality, beating the Huskies in Washington and San Diego State, but in the end it was too little too late.
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I liked this post! According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi who does Bracketology only Illinois got snubbed to him, and instead Florida got in.
The reason this is odd is because he had Florida out, even past MSU/VT. Arizona State went from bubble team to out, just by losing in the first round.
Here is my comments about each team mentioned:
1. Mississippi State – decent record in a weak conference. They had a few key losses that set them back but maybe a strong case taking Kentucky into OT.
2. Illinois-lack luster record (19-14), going 1-5 in your last 5 regular season games isn’t going to get you in as a bubble team. Not even in the Big East.
3. Virginia Tech – just like Mississippi they are victims to a weak conference. They had even fewer key loses, but they just didn’t get a strong schedule to display. 23-8 is tough to justify being snubbed…especially when it’s the old powerhouse of the ACC.
Arizona State- no surprise there. They played in a weak conference and played poor at times. The Pac-10 conference was down, and Arizona State didn’t stick out…especially in their tourney.
Losing 14 games and still expecting an NCAA berth? Seems a bit out of touch with reality to me. I am probably a bit out of touch with reality as well, as I was hoping that the Missouri Valley might get two picks in with Wichita State being the second one. They did give Northern Iowa one of their four losses on the year but did not win against them in the MVC tournament finals. They also had a couple of bad in-conference losses during the season, but they are a pretty good team. It hurt them that Texas Tech swooned down the stretch as Tech was something like 9-0 and ranked in the Top 25 when WSU beat them.
Yeah, gone are the days when the Big Ten gets more love than they deserve. I really like UNI, and can’t really understand why everyone thought the MO Valley was so down this year. You made a good point on Wichita.