When A Buzz Turns To A Whine

Before we move on to the other stuff, let’s take a minute to talk about Buzz Williams and his remarkable statement about the NCAA committee. We’d like to start with a few words and here they are:

• Tulane - 98
• Abilene Christian -127
• Texas A&M Corpus Christi-243
• North Florida - 270
• New Orleans -258
• Central Arkansas - 320
• Northwestern State - 330
• Houston Baptist -335
• Dallas Christian - NR

Those are some of the schools that Texas A&M scheduled and their Ken Pom rankings.

They did also play Wisconsin, Butler and Notre Dame. They did beat Notre Dame, which counts, but lost to Butler, and the Bulldogs had a dismal season.

Notre Dame, by contrast, played St. Mary’s, A&M, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Western Michigan and Texas A&M CC.

You may not get points for losing to quality teams but you do get dinged for playing lousy ones.

We went through a similar scenario with Seth Greenberg at Virginia Tech when he went on tirades about his team being left out.

There’s a very simple principle here: if you want to be taken seriously, schedule seriously. We are much more impressed with guys like Mark Few and Tom Izzo, who will literally play anyone anywhere, than we are by guys who try to game the system and then complain when it blows up in their face.

Grow a pair, Buzz. Take your team to McKale Center or Pauley. Try to get to Rupp. Just play a tough schedule, win, and you’ll be in.

Nate Oats gets it. Alabama scheduled South Dakota State, Iona, Miami, Gonzaga, Houston Memphis and Davidson. That’s an amazing schedule really because South Dakota State, Iona, Memphis and Davidson are all extremely dangerous, and in fact, Iona, Memphis and Davidson all beat ‘Bama. However, the Crimson Tide beat Gonzaga, Houston and Miami and those were huge.

Alabama finished one spot below A&M in the SEC, in eighth place. Alabama is a sixth seed. Williams doesn’t complain about that because he knows what they did and what he didn't do.