NCAA Basketball: Duke and Providence Friars leads the Sunday Mailbag
By Bryan Mauro
4. Which conference will be most adversely affected when Selection Sunday comes due to lack of non-conference games or lack of non-conference wins? – Erik Reno (@hawkreno)
This is yet another thing that is going to be interesting to monitor this year. The committee has many questions left unanswered and there are so many teams who are only going to play one or two non-conference games. There are also teams who are all going to play six or more non-conference games. Currently, North Carolina A&T has already played eight games.
As has been discussed already the tournament is going to look very strange this year with 13 games being the minimum for qualification for the NCAA tournament. It looks as if the majority of teams will get to the 13 game threshold so how the committee looks at a team in a power conference that has 13 games and goes 8-5 vs a low major who goes 13-0 potentially will be very interesting to see.
With all of that being said, the SEC has done itself zero favors. In fact, that conference looks dreadful in the non-conference. First, favorite Kentucky has looked terrible. The Wildcats can’t shoot, rebound, play defense or get out of their own way and it doesn’t look like it is changing any time soon. Auburn has a slew of freshmen who are going to get better as the year moves on but the best Auburn Tiger, Sharife Cooper seems that he will never be cleared by the NCAA.
Mississippi State doesn’t look to be any good at all and no one knows what to expect from Florida on a nightly basis. LSU has won but has struggled a little bit against lesser competition. Tennessee is finally back playing and many believe they are the team to beat especially now. I have been critical of Tennessee and they still have some to prove for me to be fully on board but they do look impressive.
The SEC is the league that could see the most adverse effect from the lack of quality non-conference wins when it comes to Selection Sunday. While it may not show in the overall number of bids the league receives it could rear its ugly head when it comes time to seed the teams. The lack of quality non-conference wins could be the difference in a seed line or two, which could be the difference in having a team make a deep run.