A Schedule the NCAA Just Didn’t Buy
The question I left unasked at the ACC Tournament, and have since lived to regret, would have been addressed to Seth Greenberg. His answer wasn’t really germane to anything I was writing, so to ask it, at the time, might have come off as goading or mean. So I saw no point, until hearing wall to wall over these last couple of news cycles what a travesty it was that Virginia Tech got left out of the NCAA Tournament while Wake Forest got in.
Greenberg had already answered, or actually not answered, a question about his team’s prospects for the Dance, saying it was now up to the Committee and out of his hands.
The question I really wanted to ask, but didn’t was:
“Why did you set your schedule in such a way that you’re sitting here 23-8 with a 10-6 ACC record and even worrying about the NCAA Tournament?’’ I wish I had asked.
Back when it was in his hands, Greenberg scheduled Brown (257 RPI), UNC Greensboro (249), Delaware (239), VMI (310), Charleston Southern (285), Maryland-Baltimore County (333), Longwood (286) and, as it turned out, the worst team he could have possibly played, N.C. Central (347, last RPI rating). The conference dictated Iowa (210), so that was just a bad break you can’t really blame on him. And I recognize that you can’t always be certain just how bad the bad teams are going to be but to schedule the likes of Brown, UMBC, Delaware, Longwood and N.C. Central in the same year is to risk ending up with a Strength of Schedule of 133 and an RPI of 59.
If Virginia Tech had played a bad out-of-conference schedule the Hokies would be in the NCAA Tournament, no sweat. They played a really, really bad non-conference schedule, and the NCAA Committee didn’t buy it. It happened at Wake Forest a couple of years ago when the Deacons finished 17-13 and couldn’t get an NIT invite, so Coach Dino Gaudio adjusted. This year he played teams he could beat, but instead of playing nine teams with RPIs higher than 200, as did Virginia Tech, he played six (East Carolina, High Point, Winston-Salem State, Elon, UNC Wilmington and UNC Greensboro). And instead of playing five with RPIs higher than 285, as did Virginia Tech, he played one, cross-town neighbor, WSSU. And he played Wilmington and Greensboro on their courts, and along the way also played Gonzaga in Spokane, Purdue in West Lafayette, and Richmond, William & Mary and Xavier at home. He worked on his schedule and set it up right. And that’s how you go 19-10 and 9-7 in the league with a strength of schedule of No. 30 and an RPI of No. 39 and end up with a No. 9 seed despite a late-season slide.
And that’s how you spend this week getting ready for the NCAA Tournament instead of coming up with reasons why a pretty darn good basketball team was left behind. The real reason is obvious. A stroll through the deer park is nice, but it doesn’t lead to the Dance.