Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott Says The Committee Stiffed The Big East
Creighton Blue Jays head coach Greg McDermott saw the March Madness field get unveiled yesterday and immediately noticed something was off.
It had nothing to do with how his team was seeded. Even after losing in the Big East quarterfinals to Providence, the Blue Jays landed a No. 3 seed in the Midwest region and have a favorable path to make a Final Four run (because we all know Tennessee and Purdue will find a way to choke before they get there).
McDermott was actually surprised at the teams that didn’t make the field, specifically, Big East teams.
Despite having solid seasons, Providence, St. John’s, and Seton Hall in particular all got left out of the field of 68. McDermott said that seeing the Big East so underrepresented disappointed him. He added that any team in the conference that finishes with at least a .500 record in conference play should be playing postseason basketball.
"It’s kind of taken some of the buzz off. Hard to believe, and I certainly recognize that the committee's got a very difficult job … but we're the second-best league in the country and we have three teams in the top three seed-lines," McDermott said. "A team that went 13-7 is not worthy to get in? … If you win half your games in the Big East, you should be playing in the postseason."
McDermott Was Right, The Big East Should Have Had More Teams In The Tournament
As McDermott said, the selection committee certainly did respect the fact that the Big East is undoubtedly among the toughest conferences in the league. In addition to Creighton getting a 3-seed, UConn earned the top overall spot in the tournament, and Marquette is the 2-seed in the South region.
McDermott (left ) and guard Trey Alexander (right) will represent on esof just three Big East schools to earn a bid to March Madness. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
But that doesn’t mean that they gave the Big East a fair assessment.
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If you look at the list of how many teams came per conference, the Mountain West had twice as many teams earn bids to the tournament as the Big East.
I can understand Utah State, Boise State, Nevada, and New Mexico (the conference champions). But you can’t sit there with a straight face and tell me San Diego State and Colorado State deserved bids over teams that had better or comparable conference records (see Seton Hall and St. John’s) in a much tougher conference. The committee definitely stiffed the Big East with at least two of these selections.
But, what’s done is done, there’s no changing anything now. It will be up to McDermott’s Blue Jays, UConn, and Marquette to represent the Big East well in this upcoming tournament and make up for an unjustified lack of conference representation.
Let the Madness begin.