Over the years, a lot of teams have made the NCAA men’s tournament selection committee look bad by laying an egg after receiving a borderline at-large bid. Many times in those situations, it’s unfair to second-guess the decision in hindsight.
In the case of the Virginia Cavaliers and their latest March Madness horror show—a 67–42 embarrassment at the hands of the Colorado State Rams on Tuesday—it’s 100% justifiable to rip the committee. The Cavaliers never should have been invited, and the mess they left in Dayton lands squarely on the face of those who put them in the field. A whole lot of people—myself included—were sure this decision would end badly.
A few years ago, the NCAA invented its own metric for evaluating teams, called the NET rankings. It was supposed to be (and is) an improvement over the old RPI. But this year, in the case of Virginia, the committee disregarded the clear message its own numbers sent.
