Response from friend on NCAA selection committee...

[LastWarrior]

"Be thankful. Just wait."

Not sure what that means but my guess is that the McNeal injury weighed very heavily on the committees' minds.  Sounds like he's done for the year but I don't know how they would have gotten confirmation of that from MU.  BTW... didn't we just beat one of their 3 seeds and St. Johns on the road without McNeal? 

[NavinRJohnson]

To completely read into that..McNeal is out and we were more or less on the bubble because of it.

I'll look forward to him expanding on that.

[Big Papi]

What more could we have done?  We beat a 3 seed at home.  We beat a team we were suppossed to beat on their home court and we hung in with a 3 seed for 30 minutes and lost by less than UW did to Ohio St. today.

[Mayor McCheese]

the Tournament Committee screwed more than just MU, Cuse out is a joke, Drexel out I think is wrong, Louisville a 6... I thought the last 10 were very important?

[MUAlum99]

"Be thankful"?!?!?!?!

Your friend better be thankful that I don't know who he is.  I'd stick my foot up his and the rest of the committee's nether regions.

What a joke.

We have the resume of AT LEAST a 6 seed, if not a 5 seed.  How the hell does USC deserve a 5 seed?  Just because they got lucky this weekend and made the Pac 10 championship game? 

Again, maybe its your friend who should be thankful...

[mu_hilltopper]

Makes me wonder if the committee knows something about McNeal that wasn't released, and punished MU for any theoretical obfuscation.

[mwbauer7]

This is all pretty funny, but seriously when does the real bracket come out?

[mugoose]

what is this "punishment" people are talking about? They wouldn't penalize us for the <cNealinjury. Someone please attempt to explain this.

[MU10]

Isn't Butch from Wisconsin out for the season?  I'm not positive on that, but if so, how do they have a 2 seed?  If MU gets penalized for an injury, why doesn't Madison...that also seems like a pretty big injury to me.

[NavinRJohnson]

what is this "punishment" people are talking about? They wouldn't penalize us for the <cNealinjury. Someone please attempt to explain this.

They seed the teams that will play in the tournament, and we are not nearly as good without McNeal - I think they demonstrated that pretty clearly in the BET.

As far as the Butch injury goes, there is no comparison as to what each player means to his respective team. One is an All Conference performer and BE Defensive POY and one is frankly an average player. UW went to the final of the B10 Tourney without Butch, while we struggled with St. John's (missing their best player), and were beaten pretty handily by Pitt.

[maxpower773]

lastwarrior, i don't know who your friend is, but i now hate him along with the rest of the committee.

[LastWarrior]

Isn't Butch from Wisconsin out for the season?  I'm not positive on that, but if so, how do they have a 2 seed?  If MU gets penalized for an injury, why doesn't Madison...that also seems like a pretty big injury to me.

McNeal, as the Big East Defensive Player of the Year and a 2nd Team All Big East selection, is a much, much, much more damaging injury to MU than Butch was to UW.  Butch was a slightly better than a bit player off the bench.  McNeal, IMHO, was our best player.

[Pakuni]

Looking at that remark more optimistically, perhaps the speaker was referring to the apparent vulnerability of UNC. Hansborough hasn't been himself since he became The Mask, they had lost two of three heading into their conference tourney and a very average NC State team gave them fits today.

[LastWarrior]

lastwarrior, i don't know who your friend is, but i now hate him along with the rest of the committee.

He's not very high on my list right now either.     That said, he's feeling much more pain than us as his Syracuse team will be playing in the NIT.

[shaquilvaine]

Do us all a favor and take a dump on your friend's porch. 

[maxpower773]

that is true, so does that mean he hates himself right now?

[Djgoldnboy]

Yeah, or unless he knows about a new injury to Neitzel or something.....say they new McNeal wasn't going to play, no way does dropping us in the seeding "help" our cause in anyway.

[Big Papi]

what is this "punishment" people are talking about? They wouldn't penalize us for the <cNealinjury. Someone please attempt to explain this.

They seed the teams that will play in the tournament, and we are not nearly as good without McNeal - I think they demonstrated that pretty clearly in the BET.

As far as the Butch injury goes, there is no comparison as to what each player means to his respective team. One is an All Conference performer and BE Defensive POY and one is frankly an average player. UW went to the final of the B10 Tourney without Butch, while we struggled with St. John's (missing their best player), and were beaten pretty handily by Pitt.

You can dismiss Butch's influence on the badgers but since he went down, UW has scored 48, 52, 53 and 49 points in 4 out of 5 games since Butch went down with the 48 points being the ohio st game where he suffered the injury.  And if we were beaten pretty handily by Pitt than UW was manhandled, destroyed, obliterated by Ohio St today.  

[Marquette84]

what is this "punishment" people are talking about? They wouldn't penalize us for the <cNealinjury. Someone please attempt to explain this.

They seed the teams that will play in the tournament, and we are not nearly as good without McNeal - I think they demonstrated that pretty clearly in the BET.

As far as the Butch injury goes, there is no comparison as to what each player means to his respective team. One is an All Conference performer and BE Defensive POY and one is frankly an average player. UW went to the final of the B10 Tourney without Butch, while we struggled with St. John's (missing their best player), and were beaten pretty handily by Pitt.

You obviously weren't watching the Big East tournament.   MU didn't "struggle" against St. Johns--the lead late in the 2nd half was as large as 17, and had MU continued to play agressively, could have maintained or extended the lead.  

If you watched any of the Big East (or any other tournament for that matter) you'd realize that coaches in tournament situations don't try to maximize the final margin.  Once they have a comfortable lead, they try to preserve their players for the next day.  

The one guy who didn't back off once he had a good lead was Roy Willams at Kansas in the 2003 final four, and he cost his team a National Championship.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that had both MU and Pitt come off a previous game (or both had byes), MU would have taken Pitt for a 3rd straight in the BET.  MU was playing that well until they ran out of gas that night.

[NavinRJohnson]

If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts...

and had MU continued to play agressively, could have maintained or extended the lead.  

Makes me wonder which game you are refering to since that statement could apply to more games than I can count.

As a matter of fact, I watched nearly the entire BE tournament. MU didn't try to conserve anything, we gave it up at the end as we have so many times this season. DJ played 37 minutes, Wesley Matthews 34. SJU shot 50% in the second half.

[Mayor McCheese]

Has Wisconsin scored 60 points since Brian Butch went down??  Seems like his injury didn't matter, its not so much the 8 seed that makes me angry... its the fact that they have us play UNC in their backyard.

[muPARTY]

its not so much the 8 seed that makes me angry... its the fact that they have us play UNC in their backyard.

thank you, because it's the same here.  that was absolutly the worst draw to get.  here's hoping UNC pulls a Wisconsin from 3 yrs ago, when they lost in the 2nd round here at the Bradley.

[Warrior Forever]

The fact that Wisconsin went to the Big 10 championship game without Butch and with a pathetic offensive game is a representation of how bad the Big 10 is.

If you remove Wisconsin and Ohio St, the remaining 9 teams in the Big 10 had a TOTAL of 9 road wins.

The Big 10 deserved four bids.  I'll take Syracuse over Purdue or Illinois any day.

Go Warriors. Crush Spartans.

[TVDirector]

horsehockey to base a seeding on something like that.
MU had a very fine year...
Do you reward them with a higher seed if they had a worse WL record during the season because of injuries, but their best player is now okay to play in the tourny?
I think not.

[Pardner]

"Be thankful. Just wait."

Not sure what that means but my guess is that the McNeal injury weighed very heavily on the committees' minds.  Sounds like he's done for the year but I don't know how they would have gotten confirmation of that from MU.  BTW... didn't we just beat one of their 3 seeds and St. Johns on the road without McNeal? 

This obviously is in response to 'Cuse getting clipped...a team who had a higher BET seed than MU because they beat us at home.  Conference parity was at play in seeding today.  SEC and ACC had highest rated schedules...at first blush, I could say Big East got hosed.  Why isn't G'Town in consideration for a 1?  How could Vandy and Tenn be higher seeds than LU and ND?  MU at 8?  How could IU, Ill and Purdue all make it from the Big 10?  Answer:  Big East and Big Ten each have six teams in...NCAA:  "let's balance the big conferences" (USC at a 5, Texas Tech making it as a bubble over Cuse) vs. just taking RPI's.  Political correctness, it seems to me.  If the format is a 128 team field (with no conference tourneys), do we have seedings that make sense as they are then based solely on RPI's vs. inclusion?

BTW, after further review about the Big East seedings--GU has an easy walk to the regional final.  LU plays first two games in Lexington as essentially home games.  Pitt has a easier bracket out West.  The Domers match up well in their bracket until they hit the Badgers.  Only MU's bracket is ridiculously hard...but we can match up well there with our quickness and speed.  Beating UNC at home (Greensboro) won't be easy but the second game after their cupcake game--on short prep time--is a good as chance as any for a mini run.  Tough