Tony Bennett seems like a mensch of a human being. The grace with which he handled being the first team to lose as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2018 made the world root so much harder for him when he won the national championship the following season.
You’d want your kid to go to Virginia to play basketball. Especially if he has long arms and likes going over ball screens and sending drivers to the middle. He’ll be treated well, get a great education, and learn a ton about basketball from one of the true gurus of the game.
But the Hoos haven’t won a game in the NCAA Tournament since they cut down the nets, and they don’t beat quality teams anymore. Whether that’s the transfer portal not allowing Bennett’s players to spend enough time in their infamous pack line system, or a lack of recruiting advantages at the academically-rigorous University of Virginia, or a non-competitive NIL system… for that I don’t have the answers. But outside of Reece Beekman, they just don’t have the players needed to compete to win big games against good teams.
Finishing dead-last in all of Division for three years running in adjusted tempo per KenPom might have something to do with it. To be fair, they were dead last in ‘19 when they won it all too. But in the transfer portal era, what recruit wants to walk the ball up and win games in the 50’s when you’re a free agent every Spring?
Off topic: While I loathe the way Virginia tries to score, I love to watch them defend. When it’s going good and they’re in sync, it’s five guys on a string with multiple high-hands closeouts per possession and a preternatural ability to deny a post entry pass. If you love team basketball, it’s a clinic. But you can still run pack line and try and score via secondary break once a decade.
But the deserved respect the basketball community has for Bennett and his program might have something to do with the egregious error they made in putting the Virginia Cavaliers in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Because them playing in the First Four on Tuesday night is a farce.
UVA is 2-7 in Quad 1 games this season. Those wins are a 73-70 victory over Florida in Charlotte during the second game of the season. One where the Gators had 16 turnovers because barely anyone on the court had played together before.
The other was at Clemson, and if there’s a more Jekyll and Hyde team in the country not named Texas A&M, you tell me who they are. Clemson can beat UConn or lose to South Carolina State on any given day. They’re chaos without the ladder. And that’s why they’re a betting underdog as a No. 6 seed to No. 11 New Mexico on Friday.
But UVA is 8-3 in Quad 2 games, and a combined 13-0 against Quad 3-4. They’re very good at not losing games they shouldn’t lose. But in what world is that a quality you want for a team competing for a national championship? Shouldn’t you have to, you know, beat good teams to earn your way into the NCAA Tournament?
We are rewarding those that take classes via pass/fail and preemptively don’t want a grade by putting UVA in March Madness. Which resume looks better to you?
St. John’s
NET: 32
Quad 1 record: 4-10
Quad 2 record: 6-2
Bad losses: 1
KenPom: 25
Best win: vs. NET 11 Creighton
Worst loss: vs. NET 133 Michigan
Virginia
NET: 54
Quad 1 record: 2-7
Quad 2 record: 8-3
Bad losses: 0
KenPom: 69
Best win: at NET 35 Clemson
Worst loss: at NET 124 Notre Dame
Under the current NCAA selection process, each game is supposed to count equally. If current form was a factor, plenty of changes that would be made to the field.
But if current form was for some reason assessed, St. John’s won six straight to close the season before losing by two possessions to No. 1 UConn in the Big East semifinal. Virginia finished the season losing five of their last nine, going to overtime with both Boston College and NC State in the ACC Tournament.
I’m sorry, this isn’t close. The NCAA men’s basketball selection committee made an egregious error here. This is indefensible.
Also let’s not forget there’s a strong luck factor in the Virginia’s favor already. UVA was 54 in the NET, the lowest team selected for an at-large. But they’re No. 69 in KenPom, which takes some of the variance placed via winning and losing out of the equation and measures teams more holistically. It’s a more holistic, accurate reflection of talent and basketball ability. And one where Virginia comes up woefully short.
Here’s another resume:
New Mexico
NET: 22
Quad 1 record: 5-6
Quad 2 record: 3-1
Bad losses: 2
KenPom: 23
Best win: vs. NET 20 San Diego State (two times), or at No. 35 Nevada
Worst loss: vs. NET 269 Air Force
And New Mexico would have been left out if they didn’t win four games in 70 hours at the Mountain West Tournament. Granted the Air Force loss is very bad, but what are we rewarding if we’re penalizing teams so severely for bad losses, but not rewarding them for great wins?
But this is the strongest case against the Hoos:
Pitt
NET: 40
Quad 1 record: 4-6
Quad 2 record: 5-3
Bad losses: 2
KenPom: 40
Best win: at NET 10 Duke, at NET 54 Virginia on February 13
Worst loss: vs. NET 158 Mizzou
The Panthers also had won four of their last five before falling to eventual No. 1 seed UNC in the ACC semifinals. They did everything you needed to do to close strong and beat tough teams. When they lost at home to to Mizzou, the Tigers still had Caleb Grill and hadn’t yet fallen into one of the worst injury luck seasons anywhere in the country.
There is no way a neutral observer can say Virginia is a more worthy team than Pitt. You can argue until you’re blue in the face, but there is zero rebuttal that passes any standard of intellectual rigor.
Chairman Charles McClelland and the rest of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee need to be accountable here. As we move into a new era of college athletics, it’s time to have some folks that aren’t directly tied to the inner workings of the industry making the decisions on who’s in and who’s out.
Where’s Ken Pomeroy or Jerry Palm to inject a bit of unbiased logic into this process? Why is every single person making these decisions an athletic director or conference commissioner? People in these roles are there due to their skill as administrators charged with things like fundraising or hiring coaches; they are not experts in how to dispassionately assess basketball teams. And because they often know or are connected to the people involved, their impartiality will continue to be questioned.
Movie studios don’t ask the accountants to pick the next big-budget blockbuster to be made, especially if they know one of the actors up for the role. Casinos don’t call the Gaming Commission to select the best concert act to bring in for a busy weekend. But college sports has glorified development officers that dabble in HR figuring out who the most-efficient team is in ball screen sets when hard-hedged. That’s the real March Madness.
Can some administrators serve on a selection committee? Sure. But having only athletics staffers has failed the sport yet again. And that has to change immediately, or else more unworthy teams are going to be chosen to play for the national championship while better ones are watching at home.
