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Posts: 4921
Reg: 02-04-06
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10-23-16 06:21 PM - Post#211896
In response to bradley
As Danny deVito said in Other People's Money, "Amen. Because where I come from that's what you say after a prayer for the dead."
Certainly pre-season buzz and hype are factors, as are notable star players who attract fan interest, and those factors are trending in the right direction and might help an Ivy team (especially Harvard or Yale [Makai Mason!]). But there just isn't any way I can foresee a Princeton team that loses to a 4-seed in the tourney getting a bid, regardless of the record of the rest of the league, their resume, or anything else. If it happens I will say the appropriate hallelujahs, but there simply isn't any evidence to show that they will get fair treatment on the merits. As mrjames is starting to realize, for mid-majors it's Calvinball all the time, and for a "cute" Ivy like PU it's even worse.
There is a strong social logic to this, which I argued last year (and where I baffled mrjames with my "It's Chinatown, Jake" reference). The incentive structure of the committee does not allow them to pass over a coach and athletic director--who will likely be no more than one or two degrees of separation from one or more committee members-- who might lose their jobs or forego big raises, in favor of a Mitch Henderson, who faces essentially zero career risk for not getting the bid. Not to mention the unwillingness to cut the rich Ivy League schools in on the NCAA tournament cash when "needier" schools can be rationalized into the field ahead of them.
Of course, it is unlikely that the Tigers go undefeated non-conference--my point was that even in that unlikely event, they'd have to win at least one game in the new conference folly to even get considered for a bid (which they would probably still be denied). If they upset Cal and Cal went on to win the Pac-12 and they beat VCU and VCU won the A-10 and they went 12-2 in conference and lost in the first round of the folly it would put the committee in a very tough squeeze, but I have confidence in their creativity and in the ESPN/CBS good-old-boy cover-up from the likes of Greenberg, Bilas, etc. (Dickie V would do his seasonal shedding of crocodile tears and then go back to hyping all the big-time talent and diaper dandies and coaching legends.)
BTW, my fan-ship includes fantasy as well as fanaticism, so in my secret place Princeton is undefeated until proven otherwise. I imagine them needing their scissors resharpened after cutting down so many nets this season. But in public, I promise not to go all Columbia on you--past performance certainly lends a strong note of caution about this group when they are expected to win.
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