NCAA Seedings: Win and Prosper
With the regular season of college hoops winding down, the old debate about NCAA Tournament seedings will soon arise.
That will naturally bring up the subject of BYU, which can’t seem to get a high seeding any year. And it probably won’t this year. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has BYU slotted as an eighth seed against South Carolina in Greensboro, N.C.
A couple of weeks ago, ESPN’s Andy Katz wrote, “Brigham Young will affect more teams than you can imagine because it doesn’t play on Sundays. A few years ago, the NCAA committee made the mistake of slotting the Cougars in a Friday-Sunday regional. BYU lost in the first round, and it didn’t become an issue. In our mock, BYU simply couldn’t be in two regions. Because of bracketing principles, the Cougars had to be moved around in other regions, and that ultimately pushed a team down from a 10-seed to a 12-seed in the mock bracket. Although this scenario might be an extreme example, it’s not out of the question,”
While it’s true BYU hasn’t received great seeds, it hasn’t done much to deserve a better one. BYU hasn’t been beyond the first round since 1993. It hasn’t beaten a higher seed since the 10th-seeded Cougars beat seventh-seeded Virginia in 1991. The No. 8 Cougars lost to No. 9 Xavier in 2007. Same thing happened when they lost as an eight seed in 1995 to Tulane.
Ex-Utah coach Rick Majerus’ teams made 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and won at least one game nine times. In 2000, the eighth-seeded Utes beat No. 9 Saint Louis.
Utah got as far as the championship game once, the Elite Eight once and the Sweet 16 two other times under Majerus. His teams won 17 tournament games and at least one game for six straight years.
Yes, his teams got good seedings – they were No. 2 twice and No. 3 once — but they also beat teams with higher seeds. In 1998, the third-rated Utes beat No. 1- seeded Arizona and No. 1-seeded North Carolina on their way to the title game. In 2003, the No. 9 Utes beat No. 8 Oregon.
Utah’s 2005 team was seeded sixth, but beat No. 3 Oklahoma in the second round.
BYU coach Dave Rose has wisely kept a low profile on this issue. While BYU’s no-Sunday policy does cause some problems, if the Cougars start winning first-round games, it won’t be long before they start getting better seedings, even with the Sunday issue.
In college basketball it’s a lot about what you’ve done lately.