Winning the SEC tourney did move Tennessee up in the NCAA seedings but not enough to get a No. 2 seed. (Vicky Graff Photo)
NCAA Tournament selection chairman Tom Burnett tried to explain why Tennessee got a No. 3 seed despite winning the Southeastern Conference Tournament and beating Auburn, Kentucky and Arizona in the regular season.
Burnett also explained why Texas A&M, 9-9 in regular-season SEC play and winner of three straight in SEC Tournament play, was not in the tournament field.
Here is what Burnett said about those situations — and guessing no one at Tennessee or Texas A&M is buying any of it. Even Kentucky coach John Calipari thought the Vols should be at least a No. 2 seed and Teas A&M should be in the tourney field.
Question: Where did Texas A&M kind of not stack up to meet the criteria for an at-large bid in the alt line?
TOM BURNETT: Certainly Texas A&M was in our conversations throughout the week, and obviously we’ve been watching them throughout the year, as well. We watched with great interest the run they made in the SEC Tournament as well.
I think, as you may have heard from the committee before, we’re looking at an entire body of work. And that’s the entire season. That starts in November. That’s not just a week in March.
And certainly, an acknowledgment that as well as this run has been by A&M here this week and over the last week or two of the season, the committee, it’s hard for the committee to ignore maybe a rough patch that the team had back in January, maybe into the first half of February.
So the total sum of what we’ve seen, what we’ve been monitoring throughout the year, as well. The committee is looking for beating good teams on a regular basis and taking advantage of the opportunities that a team may have.
So the total sum of what we’ve seen, what we’ve been monitoring throughout the year, as well. The committee is looking for beating good teams on a regular basis and taking advantage of the opportunities that a team may have.
And I think as we looked at A&M this week, they had four quad wins and about 14 opportunities. So that was in the mix and the shakeout, so to speak. But A&M one of the first few teams out of the tournament.
Question: I wanted to ask about Tennessee. They had the second-most Quadrant 1 wins in the country. Metrics are really good across the board. Was there consideration on moving them to the 2? I think just compared to an Auburn or a Duke, they’re Quadrant 1 wins and their metrics compare pretty favorably. What kept them off the 2 line; what kept them behind some of the teams ahead of them?
TOM BURNETT: I would say certainly watching Tennessee have a fantastic season this year for Coach Barnes and his crew. I would offer that we’re not able to look at any one team by itself in a vacuum, so to speak.
We have to look at what’s around them, certainly in our principles and procedures. We develop a seed list, and then we scrub teams against others on that seed list in their neighborhood, so to speak.
So when you look at the national seed list, the committee landed on having Tennessee just behind Wisconsin. That was not because that was the final position they thought at the beginning of the week, there was a chance to review.
And I would say that Tennessee did move up the initial seed list during the weekend due to their success in the SEC Tournament. However, when we got to scrubbing Tennessee against Wisconsin, the Big Ten regular season co-champs who were 16-5 themselves in Quads 1 and 2, and 9 and 2 road record, we felt it was slightly better than Tennessee at this time.
One Response
It is nothing new….on multiple occasions UK won the SEC Tournement after not winning the regular season title and did not improve their seeding. It strongly looks like the tourney format is "set" before the Conference tournements and is only changed if a team not slated to go wins their conference tournement to get the automatic bid into the NCAA 68 team field. A&M had to win the tournament to get in. Tennessee was seeded below UK before tournament. IT DID NOT CHANGE DESPITE THEM WINNING, Just like it has happened to UK before. Calipari did not complain about his seed this year in the 68 team NCAA.