Argun Ulgen explains how the Atlantic 10’s Men’s Basketball Tournament Champion got the short end of the bracket in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Virginia Commonwealth University Rams Men’s Basketball team—only three years removed from a Final Four appearance—is on the cusp of being a national powerhouse. VCU has a millionaire NCAA head coach in 36-year-old Shaka Smart. Smart’s services were heavily coveted by other nationally renowned schools before he accepted a multi-year deal with the Rams, which includes a $1.5 million base salary plus incentives .
To be a celebrity head coach like Smart, one has to have the chops, but also a nationally recognizable brand. Smart’s “HAVOC” defense makes for a style of play that has started to catch the eye of prize recruits; also, of television producers. The Rams had 21 nationally televised games this season, ten of which were on an ESPN network.
The Saint Joseph’s Hawks don’t have nearly the same celebrity or brand as does its Atlantic 10 Conference rival. Nor do they have the same sized student body as does VCU; the Rams outnumber the Hawks 31,752 to 8,860 in that department. This difference in scale was noticeable at the Barclay’s Center during last week’s Atlantic 10 tournament quarterfinal round. Against the Dayton Flyers, the Hawks were supported by a platoon of student faithful, the typical enthusiastic college fan base. Nervous shouts of joy with each shot made blended with prematurely defeatist sighs of disappointment with each miss.
But then there is this: to some considerable extent, “strength of schedule” is determined when big schools in major NCAA conferences signed to billion dollar TV agreements pair off against one another early in the season for optimally profitable intra-conference nationally televised games.
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VCU, however, brought a cavalry. Before their prime time tip off, the Rams had drenched Barclay’s with a sea of gold and black student colors. The back of their team basket looked like a giant high powered solar panel during a clear 95 degree day. When the starting-lineups for their game against the Richmond Spiders were announced, Coach Smart received louder adulation than given to most players. Here is not only a college head coach, but a celebrity savior.
There was an expectation in the air that something was about to happen. Over the next two days, VCU showed us what that was: two savage drubbings worthy of its “HAVOC” brand. The Rams won their first two conference tournament games by an average of 18.5 points; in each contest, they held their two opponents—the Spiders and the George Washington Colonials—to under 55 points.
The Rams’ defense is an absolute menace, blending a suffocating press with an obsessively anticipatory man-to-man defense in the half-court. Crisp rotations led to challenged shots, which led to a Rams’ rebound, which led to a quick outlet in transition, all to the appreciation of thousands of fans and trumpets blasting from the school’s sizable marching band.
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VCU lost eight games this year, two to the Hawks: a team which flouts the current NCAA climate of young, marketable head coaches and one-and-done freshmen stars. Hawks Head Coach Phil Maritelli has been with the program since 1985 and assumed his current job twenty years ago. The team is lead by three seniors, starting with Langston Galloway—a 6’2″ senior shooting guard who has averaged 17.5 points and 44% three point shooting while playing under the radar of the plethora of the 2014 NBA draft bound freshmen and sophomore sensations at bigger name schools. Galloway is flanked by senior Hawks forwards Ronald Roberts and Milail Kanacevic, both in the Top 10 in blocked shots per game in the A-10 and both outside of the Draft Express’s Top 100 prospects.
In the A-10 Final, The Hawks put on a clinic of half-court efficiency against VCU’s vaunted HAVOC defense en route to a 65-61 victory. Cool and composed, Galloway scored 19 points (he averaged 22.5 for the A-10 tournament) including a go-ahead three-pointer to put the Hawks ahead 57-54 with two minutes remaining. Roberts and Kanacevic staunched VCU’s electric transition game by grabbing 25 rebounds and blocking 4 shots. With the A-10 crown and a 24-9 record in tow, the Hawks looked poised for a prominent NCAA seeding.
And yet, when the NCAA brackets were announced later that day—one which included six A-10 teams—VCU and Saint Louis (26-6) received five seeds, the University of Massachusetts (24-8) a six seed, and George Washington University (24-8) an eight seed. The A-10 champion Saint Joseph’s Hawks? A ten seed.
The small, under-the-radar St. Joseph’s Hawks deserved a seeding comparable to their A-10 counterparts.
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Some would say that it was “just the numbers” that determined Saint Joseph’s fate. The Hawk’s RPI, a major NCAA selection and seeding committee measuring tool that numerically ranks a team based on its record against strength of schedule, is a .59888. It is ranked 32nd in the nation behind VCU (.62; 13th), UMASS (.61; 23rd), Saint Louis (.607, 27th), and George Washington (.602, 29th).
Ah, the numbers, the numbers. But then there is this: to some considerable extent, “strength of schedule” is determined when big schools in major NCAA conferences signed to billion dollar TV agreements pair off against one another early in the season for optimally profitable intra-conference nationally televised games. This all happens before mandatory inter-conference play begins in January. Therefore, some of these fractional RPI differentials are determined by who can (or is willing to) pair off on a nationally broadcast game; and, conversely, who has to “settle” for playing lower ranked teams from smaller, less lucrative conferences.
Aside from basic fairness to small teams, what is also lost in the RPI is actual quality of play during a ten game sample size starting around early February. Put another way, it loses considerable sight of who are the best teams right now. The Hawks finished the year 8-2 and won their tourney over A-10 opponents who now enjoy higher NCAA tournament seeds than they do. The Hawks are 2-0 against an excellent VCU team. They’ve performed better over the last ten games than Saint Louis (6-4), UMASS (6-4), and George Washington (6-4); yet each of these teams will be limping into March Madness with a more favorable tournament berth than the Hawks.
Parenthetically, if one must weigh losses from early in the season as an important factor, how about the Hawks’ quality (if not just plain unlucky) loss to #16 ranked Creighton in November? In a game that had a Tournament atmosphere, the Hawks were ahead by one with 28.5 seconds remaining before their blocked shot fell into the hands of Creighton scoring ace and projected NBA lottery pick Doug McDermott, who then converted a game winning three point play. Isn’t the Hawks’ proven ability to perform in that kind of game indicative of a #5 or #6 seed?
Perhaps some help with RPI recognition is around the corner for all A-10 teams. The conference signed an 8-year multimedia deal with CBS, ESPN, and NBC Universal in 2012 to increase its national television exposure.
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The small, under-the-radar St. Joseph’s Hawks deserved a seeding comparable to their A-10 counterparts. While those teams more or less got the rankings they deserved for their fine seasons, somehow small Saint Joseph’s got slated in an awful tournament pairing. To advance, they would have had to first advance past the higher seeded Connecticut Huskies (they lost 89-81).
Perhaps some help with RPI recognition is around the corner for all A-10 teams. The conference signed an 8-year multimedia deal with CBS, ESPN, and NBC Universal in 2012 to increase its national television exposure. It also hired earlier this year 160 Over 90, a social media company located in Philadelphia, PA that has represented the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pac 10. Their slogan for the A-10: “Who Wants Next?”
And yet, even if the coffers of each A-10 team’s revenue deepen as a result, the inherent conditions of the playing field are the same. Each A-10 team and every NCAA squad for that matter will be out for themselves over increasingly intensified branding battles for nationally televised attention, prize recruits, just one more early season opportunity to bolster their RPI. Orbiting this game, at the short end of the bracket, are small school’s, whose performance on the basketball court against quality competition in early March should matter more than it currently does.
Photo: H. Rumph, Jr./AP