South Carolina Got Robbed by the NCAA Selection Committee

South Carolina and their 24-8 record did not make the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they’ll be a strong 1 seed in the NIT.

All year long South Carolina was firmly in the NCAA Tournament. All year. Until Selection Sunday.

The SEC only received three bids from the NCAA selection committee. Just three – and one is a play-in game – while the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12 all received seven bids apiece. The Big East, which is a shadow of its former self, received five. The American got four. Then the SEC with only three.

A league with the best player in America, Ben Simmons, got three. A league that featured proven head coaches like Bruce Pearl, Ben Howland and Rick Barnes finishing in the cellar got three teams in.

Well, that’s beside the point really. Even though the selections were heavily biased against the SEC (because if they can’t have football they’re going to hammer us in basketball), I’m here to say there’s no way South Carolina shouldn’t have been in the tournament.

It’s been 12 years since the Gamecocks made the big dance. But this year they got off to a blistering 15-0 start. That 15th win was against Vanderbilt, 69-65. That same Vanderbilt team made the NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed with a 19-13 record – that’s a full five games behind South Carolina.

The main argument here would be that Vandy simply had a harder strength of schedule, thus the five losses that USC didn’t have. Well, since both teams had the exact same 11-7 SEC record and lost their first game of the conference tournament, let’s take a look at their best non-conference wins and losses:

South Carolina (13-0 in non-conference):

W vs. Tulsa (NCAA)
W vs. Hofstra (NIT)
W at Clemson
W vs. Memphis

Vanderbilt (8-5 in non-conference):

W vs. Austin Peay (NCAA)
W vs. Stony Brook (NCAA)
W vs. Wake Forest
L vs. Kansas (NCAA)
L at Baylor (NCAA)
L vs. Dayton (NCAA)
L at Purdue (NCAA)
L at Texas (NCAA)

There’s no doubt Vanderbilt played much more difficult competition in their non-conference schedule; but they didn’t really beat anyone. Austin Peay is a 16 seed and Stony Brook a 13 seed. South Carolina’s best win was Tulsa who earned an 11 seed, and when you add in Hofstra, Clemson and Memphis it’s all about a wash. So you could say everything is a wash….even the W/L record that South Carolina got the better of Vandy due to scheduling.

The committee’s ultimate judgement in this case has to have been: Vanderbilt’s “strong” November and December losses > head-to-head.

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South Carolina beat Vanderbilt. If all else is equal, shouldn’t that take precedent? But essentially the committee is saying, “we are going to reward Vandy just for putting Kansas, Baylor, etc. on their schedule and losing over head-to-head vs. an equal bubble team from the same conference”.

Now, you could argue that it was a close game – and in Columbia, SC. I’d counter with the extra nugget that South Carolina was not selected to play in the SEC vs. Big 12 challenge. That’s how Vandy got Texas on their schedule while USC had another pasty to compare with. What if Vandy had to play Eastern ____ while USC had been the one to lose to Texas? I guess their W/L record would’ve been worse but gotten a better RPI and thus been the team in the big dance instead of Vandy. Dumb luck for the ‘Dores.

It’s a shame that a team with 24 wins doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament. Frank Martin is rebuilding a program that hasn’t made it to the tourney since 2004 so naturally he’s not going to schedule heavyweights in the preseason. Let’s use some common sense and allow for teams like this to get in rather than placing so much emphasis on what a fantastically difficult road _____ team didn’t navigate three months ago.