KELSEY PHARIS
For the third year in a row Wichita State University’s basketball program was screwed over on Selection Sunday while heading into the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Two years ago the team went 31-0 during the regular season, defeating all of its opponents and winning the Missouri Valley Conference.
It was by far one of the best teams and deserved the number one seed that it got. However, after the first round it had to play Kentucky— one of the best teams in the tournament and always a hard opponent.
Kentucky coach John Calipari is one of the best coaches in the game and that year had one of the best teams in the NCAA. Kentucky also got screwed with their seeding because they were an eight seed. The team was one of the best and they proved that by making their way to the national championship.
Wichita State should have never had to play them because Kentucky should have been ranked higher than it was.
Back to this year, Wichita State has a play-in game against Villanova to even be able to play in the tournament.
The Shockers deserve to be in more than any of the 15 or 16 seeds. Sure, the team didn’t have its best year and its seniors didn’t play to the standard they did the past two years, but that doesn’t show how good a team is or is not.
With a 24-8 record and only losing one game at home, it is obvious that this team doesn’t suck.
Although in its first few games the team lost to University of Southern California, Alabama and Iowa, it is important to realize that one of the best players, Fred VanVleet, was out for those games because of an injury to both his hamstring and his right ankle. He was unable to play until Dec. 5 where the Shockers were already below .500 for the first time in seven years.
Obviously this affected the team, but once he returned the team seemingly came back to normal. Between Dec. 22 and Feb. 2, Wichita State won every game going on a 12-game winning streak. Within its conference WSU went 16-2 with a disappointing loss to Northern Iowa during the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
However, Wichita St. had already beaten Northern Iowa in January winning 74-55 and is ranked the No. 1 in the MVC.
I realize that the MVC is not the best conference, but how on Earth could the No. 1 seed in the conference not be automatically in the tournament?
Many professionals don’t agree with WSU’s ranking either. ESPN writer Eamonn Brennan said that the team will blow up everyone’s bracket and is laughably underseeded.
Wichita State has been screwed over time and time again because of the selection committee that can’t seem to collectively figure out how to rank teams.
