Last night on ESPN's basketball version of "GameDay" they outlined their field of 64 by seed (1-16). The guys were Bilas, Katz and I can't remember the hosts name.....a regular. Anyway this was their field of 64 regardless of what happens Saturday.......as they put it the best 64 teams in the country with the exception of the half asses who get auto-bids Anyway I didn't have any qualms with who they had in from the SEC but I did with who they left out and how they had them seeded. Here is what they said........ #1 Kentucky #2 Florida #4 Georgia #5 Miss St #6 Alabama #10 LSU #11 Tenn ? Could've been 12 can't remember. Here's my problems: 1) Auburn's absence. they pointed out that Auburn was like 1-5 against the RPI top 50 so they hung that against them. Also if Auburn beats MSU saturday they when the west......the question was posed of what if they win and these guys said it would not change their mind. So a team that wins it's division of the SEC is not getting in? Ridiculous if it happens. 2) Miss St and Ala seeding. In a nutshell i think they are seeded to high. both will be anywhere from 7-9 to 9-7 in confence......that is not worthy of that lofty of a seed. Strenght of Schedule? Blah, blah, blah who cares that you beat someone out of conference......you didn't take care of business in conference. plus you only had to play Kentucky, Fla, and Georgie once and I don't think either beat any of the 3. I can live with LSU's seed, i think it's fair if they get in.
One thing in LSU's favor (and perhaps against Auburn) is that the selection committee often seems to weight recent games more heavily than early-mid season games. If a team finishes the year on a hot streak, the committee seems to give them more "points" than a team with an identical record ending with a losing streak. If LSU beats Bama and wins one game in the SEC tourney, I would not be surprised to see them get as high as a 7 seed. Regardless, it will be an interesting 9 days until we find out.
To me ESPN has it right. Auburn doesn't belong in the NCAA tournament, and they've beaten less quality teams than the 7 SEC teams ESPN has getting in.
