SMU last season

[ConnHuskBask]

Now, it's obviously early but I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the resume of the snubbed SMU squad last season.

23-9 (12-6) AAC

4-3 against Top 25 (all AAC teams)

No notable OOC wins.

Awful OOC schedule (only notable team was UVA who was not ranked at the time).

W - UConn (2) Cinci Memphis
L - Louisville (2) Memphis

Now, our OOC schedule due to Texas, duke, Florida, florida, Dayton and Stanford should be worlds better by comparison but we need to actually get some of those W's.

By contrast SMU did notch 4 ranked wins which given our schedule seems unattainable.

I'm not saying we're in danger right now of missing the NCAA tournament but the margin for error in the AAC for seeding is razor thin.

Full disclosure I definitely thought SMU was snubbed. If they beat Houston in the AAC tournament we probably aren't having this debate but they had a decent resume and passed the eye test to me.

 

[CTBasketball]

We won't have those in conference wins this year, the AAC is far worse this year. Even at the top. Need to win the OOC games. It starts with Duke.

 

[Hoophound]

Now, it's obviously early but I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the resume of the snubbed SMU squad last season. 23-9 (12-6) AAC 4-3 against Top 25 (all AAC teams) No notable OOC wins. Awful OOC schedule (only notable team was UVA who was not ranked at the time). W - UConn (2) Cinci Memphis L - Louisville (2) Memphis Now, our OOC schedule due to Texas, duke, Florida, florida, Dayton and Stanford should be worlds better by comparison but we need to actually get some of those W's. By contrast SMU did notch 4 ranked wins which given our schedule seems unattainable. I'm not saying we're in danger right now of missing the NCAA tournament but the margin for error in the AAC for seeding is razor thin. Full disclosure I definitely thought SMU was snubbed. If they beat Houston in the AAC tournament we probably aren't having this debate but they had a decent resume and passed the eye test to me.

Didn't they beat Virginia?

 

[Ozone21]

Win the conference tourney and we do not need to worry about being snubbed

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Didn't they beat Virginia?

Lost by 3 points per Wiki.

 

[Fishy]

Didn't they beat Virginia?

Nope - narrow loss at UVa.

 

[Shabazzkets]

If (huge if) UConn loses all of its big non-conference games, or wins one but loses to Yale on Friday (good team, Calhoun/Purvis/Boatright all limited or unavailable), then UConn will almost certainly have to win the conference or the conference tourney to get an invite. And even winning the regular season conference title will probably have UConn on the bubble.

The AAC has absolutely zero clout, as proven last year with the Louisville, UConn seedings and the SMU snub. It's only worse this year. The good mid-major conferences will get more teams than the AAC will.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn can not lose to Yale, period. UConn also needs to go about 15-3 in the AAC.

 

[Husky25]

Unless there is a truly compelling reason against, the Committee always tries to put the defending National Championship team in the tournament. It's only happened 5 times in the last 29 years, most recently to North Carolina (2010) and Kentucky (2013).

The 2008-2009 UNC team was #1 by a wide margin. Much like last years' UConn women, the rankings after #1 UNC should have started at 6 to demonstrate the gap. The 2009-10 team went 5-11 in the ACC and lost to an underwhelming Georgia Tech team in the 1st round of the conference tournament.

Kentucky was underwhelming down the stretch, going 6-4 and lost 3 of 4 pretty convincingly to pretty mediocre opponents, (Arkansas, Georgia, and especially Vanderbilt) entering Selection Sunday. They probably should have been given the benefit of the doubt, but the Committee was justified in their "snubbing" when, as the top overall NIT seed, they lost to Robert Morris.