Dear NCAA Selection Committee

[panther2317]

Dear NCAA Selection Committee,

I wanted to take the time to point out just a few items about the Automatic Qualifier from the Missouri Valley Conference. First of all, they won the regular season title by 3 games going undefeated at home. They avenged two of their three conference losses in the Arch Madness Tournament as they dismantled Drake, Bradley and Wichita State by 15, 17 and 15 points in three days in St. Louis.

They are 4-1 vs. the RPI Top 50, 12-2 vs. the RPI Top 100 and have 17 wins over teams with over a .500 record.

And as far as the "eye test" goes, if you know basketball and have seen this team, they pass the "eye test" with flying colors. They are the true definition of a "team". They share the basketball, they defend, and they value the basketball. Please pay no attention to the "experts" who when they say "eye test" mean they believe the team they are speaking of is more talented. Talent doesn't = better team...just ask North Carolina.

PS: When everyone tells you the Mountain West is good enough to get four teams in, please remember that they lost a challenge with the Missouri Valley Conference. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Finally, I want to urge you to reward excellence for this season. Do not reward mediocrity. Excellence is 28-4.

[ryan19]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

Dear NCAA Selection Committee,

I wanted to take the time to point out just a few items about the Automatic Qualifier from the Missouri Valley Conference. First of all, they won the regular season title by 3 games going undefeated at home. They avenged two of their three conference losses in the Arch Madness Tournament as they dismantled Drake, Bradley and Wichita State by 15, 17 and 15 points in three days in St. Louis.

They are 4-1 vs. the RPI Top 50, 12-2 vs. the RPI Top 100 and have 17 wins over teams with over a .500 record.

And as far as the "eye test" goes, if you know basketball and have seen this team, they pass the "eye test" with flying colors. They are the true definition of a "team". They share the basketball, the defend, the value the basketball. Don't pay attention to the "experts" who when they say "eye test" they mean they believe the team they are speaking of is more talented. Talent doesn't = better team...just ask North Carolina.

Finally, I want to urge you to reward excellence for this season. Do not reward mediocrity. Excellence is 28-4.

So... is this an actual letter... or are you just restating facts that are posted in every thread??

[panther2317]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

Lighten up Francis. It's a post on a message board where we're talking about UNI basketball.

[ryan19]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

Lighten up Francis. It's a post on a message board where we're talking about UNI basketball.

I just didn't understand why you started a new thread for it... it would have looked good in any of the threads about the MVC tournament, bracket watches, etc...

[panther2317]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

I posted it because I wanted to post a thread. That's usually why I do stuff...because I want to. Hmm...why did you reply if you didn't understand?

If I was a fly on the wall in the NCAA Selection Committee's room (a fly that could talk and make suggestions), this is probably what I'd say.

Have some fun already this week. I was just trying to have some fun.

[jman2004]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

PS: When everyone tells you the Mountain West is good enough to get four teams in, please remember that they lost a challenge with the Missouri Valley Conference. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

This argument LOOKS great in sentence form, but I wouldn't want to dig into it too deeply . . .

Our conference's regular season and tournament winner was UNI. We defeated Wyoming (RPI: 226) in the Valley/MWC Challenge. Not much to write home about there.

Those 4 teams in the running for a NCAA tournament birth from the MWC, fared pretty well in their Valley contests:

New Mexico defeated Creighton
BYU defeated Bradley
San Diego St defeated Drake
UNLV defeated SIU

If you send that letter to the selection committee, leave that section out.

[GonzoCat]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

Big deal, one of those teams came in 4th in the MVC and the other 3 were in the bottom part of the league. If beating them a combined 10 times doesn't mean much for UNI's resume why should it mean much for the MWC teams?

We had a conference challenge and the MVC won. You can't pick out 4 games to try and make a case the MWC is superior. Top to bottom it would seem the MVC is.

[jman2004]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

Big deal, one of those teams came in 4th in the MVC and the other 3 were in the bottom part of the league. If beating them a combined 10 times doesn't mean much for UNI's resume why should it mean much for the MWC teams?

We had a conference challenge and the MVC won. You can't pick out 4 games to try and make a case the MWC is superior. Top to bottom it would seem the MVC is.

I'm not trying to say that the MWC is superior. Not at all. I'm specifically talking about the 4 individual teams that 2317 was referring to in his initial post.

New Mexico, BYU, San Diego St, and even UNLV (comparable RPI to Wichita State and has a win against Louisville on their resume) all probably deserve bids over Wichita State.

Top to bottom, the two leagues are pretty comparable. And you're right, we "won" the challenge. But when looking at individual teams, it's not too difficult to see that the MWC offers a handful of tournament worthy teams whereas the Valley offers one.

[Panther789]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

This argument LOOKS great in sentence form, but I wouldn't want to dig into it too deeply . . .

Our conference's regular season and tournament winner was UNI. We defeated Wyoming (RPI: 226) in the Valley/MWC Challenge. Not much to write home about there.

Those 4 teams in the running for a NCAA tournament birth from the MWC, fared pretty well in their Valley contests:

New Mexico defeated Creighton
BYU defeated Bradley
San Diego St defeated Drake
UNLV defeated SIU

If you send that letter to the selection committee, leave that section out.

Exactly right.

[JD720]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

I just didn't understand why you started a new thread for it... it would have looked good in any of the threads about the MVC tournament, bracket watches, etc...

How else would the selection comittee see it? I doubt they hve time to read all of the threads here.

[Panther789]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

We had a conference challenge and the MVC won. You can't pick out 4 games to try and make a case the MWC is superior. Top to bottom it would seem the MVC is.

Unless you look at anything other than the MVC/MWC Challenge.

You are picking out a handful of games and completely ignoring the rest of the season.

[GonzoCat]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

Unless you look at anything other than the MVC/MWC Challenge.

You are picking out a handful of games and completely ignoring the rest of the season.

No I'm not, but the conferences are not very far apart by any measure, and given that I think head to head competition is the most reliable measure. The MWC should not get more than 2 teams in the NCAA if the MVC is only getting one in.

[Panther789]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

No I'm not, but the conferences are not very far apart by any measure, and given that I think head to head competition is the most reliable measure. The MWC should not get more than 2 teams in the NCAA if the MVC is only getting one in.

The ACC has 6 locks, and a 7th (G-Tech) right on the bubble.

The Big 10 has 4 locks, and 2 others on the bubble.

Take a look at the teams. Do we need to make sure the Big Ten gets more teams than the ACC because of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge? Of course not.

[jman2004]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

No I'm not, but the conferences are not very far apart by any measure and given that I think head to head competition is the most reliable measure. The MWC should not get more than 2 teams in the NCAA if the MVC is only getting one in.

Sorry, but this makes absolutely no sense.

First of all, the MWC's RPI is 7th. And only trail the 6th ranked A-10 by a paper thin margin. The Valley's conference ranking is 9th with the WAC chomping at our heels. Face it, on paper, the Valley isn't much this season.

Despite what happened in the MWC/MVC Challenge, now at the end of the season when arguing for tournament worthiness, you have to look at each individual team's resume. The MWC has 4 teams with an argument. The Valley has 2.

New Mexico, BYU, and San Diego State should be "locks" in my opinion. UNI is a "lock" but is really the only Valley team worthy of that status.

So just because Indiana State beat Colorado State in the MWC/MVC Challenge, doesn't mean they deserve to be in the discussion simply because we have to keep the numbers fair.

You have to look at individual teams. The MWC has a handful of good ones. We, the Valley, do not.

[MnPantherFan]

Re: Dear NCAA Selection Committee

The ACC has 6 locks, and a 7th (G-Tech) right on the bubble.

The Big 10 has 4 locks, and 2 others on the bubble.

Take a look at the teams. Do we need to make sure the Big Ten gets more teams than the ACC because of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge? Of course not.

Bad example. No one is arguing the MV should get more teams in than the MW, just that a 4:1 ratio seem excessive. By using your figures the Big Ten would get 1.5 teams in compared to the 6 from the ACC. Wisc. and one of the co-champions might have an argument about being left out. That isn't the real point though. The gap between the two conferences just isn't that large and UNI dominating the MVC might say more about how good they are and less about how weak the conference is.