Calipari questioning NCAA selection process a rite of spring. Here’s why coaches do it.
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Game day: No. 5 Kentucky 77, Vanderbilt 71
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Vanderbilt at the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Fla.
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As always, John Calipari did not wait for Selection Sunday to question seeding and bracketing for this year’s NCAA Tournament.
This year, Kentucky’s coach has suggested that not enough Southeastern Conference teams will receive bids, and that the selection committee may lump the league’s four best teams into two regions in order to prevent an all-SEC Final Four.
That Calipari’s second-guessing came before the selection committee announces its educated first-guessing came as no surprise to CBS bracketologist Jerry Palm.
“It’s been that way forever,” Palm said. “I talked to him when he was at Memphis. John likes to get ‘pre-offended’ so he’s perfectly warmed up for when he actually needs to be offended.”
Palm laughed when asked if the selection committee would seek to prevent an all-SEC Final Four.
“That’s hilarious,” he said. “It just shows John’s lack of knowledge of how things work.”
David Worlock, the NCAA director of media coordination and statistics, wrote in an email that there was “exact language” that mandated that the selection committee separate four teams from the same conference that are among the top 16 seeds into four regions.
Bill Hancock, an NCAA staff liaison to the selection committee for 16 years, asked that his reaction be phrased as, “basically, Hancock laughed, and Hancock said, there’s no way they would do that.”
As for Calipari’s call for eight or nine SEC teams to receive bids, Palm said, “he didn’t exactly invent pandering for his conference. Every coach does that.”
Of course, Calipari is not the first coach to question the selection committee. John Thompson, Bobby Knight and Dean Smith come to mind as coaches who did likewise.
To talk to those familiar with the selection, seeding and bracketing process is to hear possible reasons for coaches’ criticism. For instance, to question the committee’s motives can create an us-against-them rallying cry heading into early-round games against seemingly ho-hum opponents. It might also inhibit committee members from doing what the process suggests is correct.
Committee chair Tom Burnett, the commissioner of the Southland Conference, has acknowledged the process this year will not be easy.
“Largely because there are a number of high-quality teams at the top battling for the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds,” he said on a teleconference.
As for eight — or more? — teams from the SEC receiving bids, Burnett said, “the committee really doesn’t look collectively at the conferences. We look at each individual team.”
Burnett said seeding boils down to three factors: “Who you played, where you played them and what the result was.”
Kentucky’s losses when a player or players did not play or were hindered because of injury should not impact seeding.
“You’d have to be an idiot not to understand how good they are,” SEC basketball consultant Mike Tranghese said of the Wildcats.
But Burnett noted that the committee cannot presume a team would have won if healthy.
“Very few teams are going to be perfect,” he said. “They’re probably going to have a blemish here or there.”
UK-Duke?
Christian Laettner made the famous (infamous?) game-winning shot against Kentucky 30 years ago this March. That 1992 East Region finals was played in Philadelphia.
With this year’s East Region returning to Philadelphia, might the selection committee set up a Kentucky-Duke game there to mark the occasion?
Mike Tranghese, a consultant on SEC basketball and former member of the selection committee, scoffed at that notion.
“Well, in the minds of fans, it’s plausible,” he said. “I can only tell you in my five years on the committee, you could not talk about that stuff.”
Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, would not allow the committee to finagle the bracket that way, said Tranghese, who added, “the vast majority of people don’t even remember that game.”
Of course, many in the Big Blue Nation remember that game, which Jerry Palm cited as a reason to think another UK-Duke game in Philadelphia would not be a priority for the selection committee.
“That’s one of those local interest things that the committee doesn’t care about,” Palm said. “There’s a perfectly good chance that Kentucky and Duke could end up in the same region. It wouldn’t be to put Kentucky and Duke together. It would be (because) geographically, it worked out that way. They’re not that far from each other.”
As of Friday’s update of his bracket, Palm had UK as a 2-seed in the East and Duke a 2-seed in the West.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi also had UK as a 2-seed in the East. He had Duke as a 2-seed in the West.
Rex joins coverage
Former UK standout Rex Chapman will be part of the television coverage of the NCAA Tournament. He will be part of the studio coverage from Atlanta through the regional semifinals.
“We’ve watched Rex in the (television and radio) work that he’s done,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. “All of us watch pretty much every play-by-play man and woman and analyst in the business.
“And he’s someone who really impressed us. … He’s got a legacy, obviously, in basketball, and we’re excited to add him to the team.”
‘Bells and whistles’
Sean McManus noted two changes viewers can expect in the television coverage of the NCAA Tournament.
One is a virtual ticking shot clock superimposed on the court. And there will be in-game interviews with coaches at the under-12 and under-eight minute timeouts.
“Fun and informative” is the goal of these interviews, said McManus, who added, “in the end, all the bells and whistles are not as important as what’s on the court.”
UK sets example
A first-round loss to Missouri ended the Ole Miss season. The Rebels’ final record was 13-19.
Coach Kermit Davis suggested better days ahead.
The return of freshman Daeshun Ruffin, the program’s first McDonald’s All-American, is one reason. Knee surgery in February ended his season. Other veterans are expected to return and be joined by what Davis said would be a top 20 freshman class.
The Ole Miss coach saw the transfer portal as key.
“We’ve got to go and find guys that are physical, that like to compete, that can do it in this league,” he said.
Davis suggested the way Kentucky and Auburn used the transfer portal to rebuild this season bolsters hope. After losing records last season, Auburn won the SEC regular-season title and UK shared second place.
“Both those teams now have a chance to win the national championship,” Davis said. “You can get well in a hurry. We’re going to get well in a hurry.”
Coaching change
Georgia fired Tom Crean as coach after a disheartening first-round loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament. It was Georgia’s 12th straight defeat. The Bulldogs’ record of 6-26 (1-17 in the SEC) made for the losingest season in program history. The 26 defeats are believed to be the most by any SEC team ever.
Crean’s record in four seasons as Georgia coach was 47-75 overall and 15-57 in the SEC regular season.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited four possible replacements: former Georgia player and assistant coach Jonas Hayes (now associate coach at Xavier), Cleveland State Coach Dennis Gates, Wake Forest Coach Steve Forbes and Southern Cal Coach Andy Enfield. Forbes and Enfield have already accepted contract extensions with their current schools. The paper also raised the notion that Murray State’s Matt McMahon could be in play.
Fashion statement
When he was a teenager, UK fan Scott Watkins moved from Bowling Green to Memphis. Before and after the move, it wasn’t unusual for him to wear Kentucky attire.
In Memphis, “I got yelled at and stuff,” he recalled during a conversation at the SEC Tournament on Thursday.
On the day after John Calipari announced in the spring of 2009 that he would be leaving Memphis to become Kentucky coach, Watkins happened to be wearing UK attire. He learned the reaction could move beyond yelling.
A Memphis fan spit on him.
Noting that he is a military veteran, Watkins said, “My wife was there to hold me back.”
Watkins lives in Memphis and works as a lawn technician.
Happy birthday
To Anthony Davis. He turned 29 on Friday. … To Rashaad Carruth. He turned 40 on Saturday. … To former Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy. He turns 54 on Sunday. … To Patrick Patterson. He turns 33 on Monday. … To former Vandy All-American Clyde Lee. He turns 78 on Monday. … To Steph Curry. He turns 34 on Monday. … To Jock Sutherland. He turns 94 on Monday. … To Jim Master. He turns 60 on Wednesday.
Sunday
Men’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show
When: 6 p.m.
TV: CBS-27
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 11:34 AM with the headline "Calipari questioning NCAA selection process a rite of spring. Here’s why coaches do it.."
