Duke as #1 Seed?
Posted by pauliesplatform on March 15, 2010
It always amusing to watch the fortunes of the Duke Blue Devils when NCAA tournament time rolls around. Because they are the “great white hope” of the sport they are always treated royally by the selection committee. This year they look to have the easiest road to the final four in Indianapolis with the likes of Baylor, Purdue and struggling Villanova as the other high seeds in the South region. Contrast that with Syracuse, which won the Big East regular season and was shipped out west as the top seed. In order to get to Indy, they would have to knock off Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt and Kansas State, a much tougher road on paper. Now, of course you can say paper means nothing and that we have to see how the games play out. That’s true. But for purposes of this argument can somebody explain to me why a team like Duke, whose conference was unusually weak this year, gets an easier time of things than Syracuse, who blew through the toughest conference this year? Wait, I know the answer- they’re Duke and everybody else isn’t. This school gets treated like the Yankees every year in this tournament and what have they done lately to deserve it? The answer is nothing. They haven’t been to a Final Four since 2004, haven’t won a title since 2001 and haven’t reached a Sweet 16 since 2006. They are now at the point that they are surviving on reputation alone. In short, they ain’t that good. I think West Virginia, the #2 seed in the East deserved Duke’s #1 seed for their body of work which included winning the Big East tournament title. When asked last night on CBS’ selection show why Duke was treated better than Syracuse, tourney chair Dan Guerrero said Duke winning the (watered down) ACC Tournament was a big factor while Syracuse lost in round one of the Big East. (to Georgetown, who ended up in the Big East Final with West Virginia) If conference tourneys are so vital then don’t you have to pick West Virginia over Duke as a #1? After all, West Virginia played in the best conference in America this season but no one cares because they don’t start the wide-eyed choirboys of Coach K and don’t produce giant TV ratings. The fact that TV ratings and not merit contribute to who goes where in the tournament is sickening. It really makes the selection committee look foolish. But since the NCAA has tied their wagon solely to CBS and this tournament, certain biases are an unfortunate reality in the business of creating ratings. Hopefully Duke makes an early 2nd round exit again and is exposed as the frauds they are so that the truly good teams get the exposure they deserve.
