This is very old. Some of these people aren't even in those jobs anymore, let alone on the committee.
I don’t think the committee gives a shit about guys not playing because “coaches decision”. It’s a weird situation compared to the pre-season expectations, but the reality is Kugel’s contributions to the team are all over the map and most likely tunovers/inconsistency play a role in Golden’s decision to either have him off the bench or DNP. It’s possible he shrank the lineup because he thinks it made us better. Who is the committee to think otherwise? I think Aberdeen is more of a ball handler and that helps with press busting (Kugel for some reason was having major turnover issues, so it very well could have been over that). We’ve seen this before with Kugel, so he may not be done yet anyway. I guess the committee can be tempted to view the injury dynamic, but even there it doesn’t totally change the team, so I still think it’s a stretch in our case. It just eliminates the luxury we were enjoying with the 4 bigs rotation. Condon is so good I honestly don’t see a massive drop off. If anything he’s actually more involved in the offense. Of course losing a guy #1 in the county at offensive rebounding is nothing to sneeze at, but the last time we made a run was with Kavartius Hayes as our starting center, and we had NO depth that year. So imagine if this team had Haugh as the starting C and nothing else, because that’s about the size we were working with then. Even down a man we have a good front court with good size, we just miss the luxury of the 4 man rotation. It takes away some of the balance and of course brings foul trouble more into play.
I think it’s pretty fair. Our first opponent will have played a game, for whatever that’s worth. We also don’t have to go out to the west coast in our earlier games. Not saying either us and UK get this far, but I don’t like playing SEC teams in this tourney. I realize it’s inevitable because of the number of SEC teams selected. I think UK, Aubarn, Alabama can be beat while UT can advance, especially if that Connect (sp) gets hot. I also think we can advance if we can get our lineup right and play good team defense; hoping our opponents don’t run that 1-3-1 zone but we all know they will. If we go back to when we were 1-3 in SEC and got clobbered by Ole Miss, we would have taken a 7 seed gladly.
I want to say that I hate FSU/SWAC more than anyone on this site (except for TJ). If losing their QB drops them out of the playoffs (which I agreed with), does losing our starting center drop us down a spot. I thought 6 seed. Maybe the BB committee does not put that much thought into it, but I could see that.
I also hate F$U far worse than any of our rivals. You can see the committee in football absolutely made the correct decision by looking at the Orange Bowl mismatch. Wait! I think Georgia just scored again…
Losing to Vandy counts more than beating UK in Rupp, Bama, Auburn, UGA 3 times, Bama again and Texas A&M after they beat UK?!?
Erik Fawcett mentioned yesterday that a committee member said before Saturdays games that 35 at large seeds were set. Meaning that our victory over the aggies likely didnt matter in our seeding nor did today’s results. This comment by the committee pissed off a lot of people.
So not that the angry mob cares, but they moved us by 3 three teams from where the consensus had us on bracket matrix. From the 2nd 6 to the first 7. Those three teams were St Mary’s, Gonzaga and Clemson. Clemson had some really good noncon wins (Bama, SC among others), and Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s had better metrics than us. So none of the three were egregious, anywhere from a 5-7 was fair. Has we been one team higher no one would have known the difference.
Vandy was a tough loss but they under-ranked us all year, especially considering how highly ranked the teams we beat are
if that's the case, how do you rank a 24-10 team in the SEC Final a 7 seed? That's even more disturbing than taking today's game and Micah's injury into account. Me thinks there are some incredibly biased homers on that committee
Away records were closely looked at this year. That is where our resume did not hold up. Selections were made prior to tourney with the exception of winners bumping out teams like Indiana State. Committee said they removed 4 teams as a result of league tourney upsets. Loss to Vandy hurt resume did to away game review. Playing UGA, despite winning, three times actually lowered our overall metrics. 7 is where I thought we would be. Glad we are in. Losing Micah hurts interior defense and blocking/rebounding. Fortunately he was not playing major minutes due to foul trouble. Could have used against Colorado big. Like UF. We often lose when out rebounded. Sometimes we don’t guard 3 well. If you look at some games, we have low assist numbers, as not moving ball. Everyone is hoisting rock when they have the ball. If we play good team ball and stay healthy, we will win a few in tourney. Go Gators!
Billy D used to say he just wanted to be in there. Because once you were in there it was up to you- and you had a chance. That's how I see this 7 seed. Did we deserve a 5? I think so. (win at KY, beat Bama twice, 3 wins at SECT.) But to quote Joakim "It don't matter." And from my memory- teams that either complain or celebrate their seeds are usually out pretty quickly.
My mistake you are right I did not have an updated list of the committee members...here is the current list and the SEC representation was from Alabama so I guess they now control football and basketball for the SEC. NCAA Tournament Selection Committee The 2023-2024 Selection Committee (the year the term is up is in parenthesis): CHARLES MCCLELLAND (2024) – SWAC Commissioner (Chairperson) JAMIE POLLARD (2024) – Iowa State Athletic Director SCOTT BARNES (2024) – Oregon State Athletic Director BUBBA CUNNINGHAM (2025) – North Carolina Athletic Director (Vice-Chairperson) MARK COYLE (2026) – Minnesota Athletic Director GREG BYRNE (2026) – Alabama Athletic Director KEITH GILL (2026) – Sun Belt Commissioner BARRY COLLIER (2026) – Butler Athletic Director MARTIN NEWTON (2027) – Samford Athletic Director TOM WISTRCILL (2027) – Big Sky Commissioner ARTHUR JOHNSON (2028) – Temple Athletic Director
Great analysis. I think the committee takes all factors under consideration including how our fans travel. To that extent, they gave us somewhat of a break by keeping us closer to home. And I thought the biggest difference in the Auburn game was that we did not have enough bodies. TAMU was very physical and Auburn was like a carbon copy with a better post man. And they played s after our having played TAMU and with having to play one fewer games than we did consecutively. We squeaked by without Kugel against TAMU thanks to as you pointed out great contributions from Aberdeen not only in ball handling but also scoring. But because we did not use an extra guard, Clayton, Pullin, Richard, and Aberdeen were all noticeably worn down by midway through the second half or even earlier. Just the psychological wear and tear of knowing there is no one else who can take up the slack who isn’t as tired as you are caught up with us. There are no consecutive nights in the NC AAs which will help us with a limited lineup, but I hope that some favorable resolution emerges between now and Friday with Kugel. There is also Rishwain and Szymczyk who could come in and give some relief defensively for Samuel or Condon. He was cleared in January to play. I believe we are a much greater threat 9 deep than we are 7 deep. And we literally have two 5 man rotations with Kugel, Szymcczyk, Aberdeen, Rishwain, and Haugh. It almost seems as if Golden handicapped his options for some reason. We might have some real good surprises in store for us in the tournament.
It's aggravating because they claim to base everything on season-long results, yet they can't wait a day or two for the actual end of the season.
