Quick Thought

Just a little food for thought here. Right now, going into the NIT Finals, the West Virginia Mountaineers have compiled a 26-9 season, including a win over a certain University of California Los Angeles program (maybe you've heard of them). They have put together a 9-7 record in the Big East, arguably the hardest conference in the country (Duke, a six seed in the tournament, had an 8-8 record in the ACC in what proved to be a down year for the conference). They did not make the NCAA tournament.

Syracuse University recently ended its season, losing by three points to Clemson, who will play in the NIT Championship this week. They finished 24-11 with a 10-6 record in the Big East, which as I said, is truly one of the toughest conferences in the country to win in (Arizona, which was an 8-seed, was 20-10 with an 11-7 record in the Pac-10). Along the way, Syracuse beat (by a margin of 14 points) a team from Washington DC named after bulldogs but called the Hoyas. Perhaps you've also heard of this program. Syracuse is not in the tournament.

It is absolutely bullshit that what I just said is true. Big East programs are getting penalized, and it's unclear why. I don't know if there's some dopey stigma to blame or a vendetta or something else, but I find it unfathomable that neither the West Virginia or Syracuse programs sent teams to the tournament. Instead viewers were saddled watching joke teams like North Texas (23-8 with a 10-8 record in the Sun Belt Conference) get destroyed. Whoop de damn doo.

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