Selection Sunday wrap-up: The lucky, the hosed and more

It's tough not to feel bad for Bruiser Flint.

Poor guy went out and scheduled every difficult game he could get, won 13 contests on the road and seemed to be in decent shape. But the Drexel coach was misinformed. All this time he thought that a win at Syracuse was significant. Turns out it was just a victory over an NIT team.

Who knew?

Anyway, here's a bracket breakdown.

(Damn-near everything you need to know.)

Who got lucky?

It's OK Stan. Your Hogs are in the tourney. (US Presswire)

Arkansas: A week ago the Hogs were so far off the NCAA Tournament radar boosters were supposedly rounding up money to buy Stan Heath out of his contract. Now, those same fans have an NCAA Tournament team, and I'm not even sure how. The Hogs finished 7-9 in the SEC, beat two at-large teams and lost to seven non-NCAA Tournament teams. So when the guys on TV acted surprised to see Arkansas in the field, it's because they were surprised to see Arkansas in the field. It wasn't an act. Imagine everybody thinking you're on the wrong side of the bubble on Sunday morning, losing by 19 points on Sunday afternoon and then getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night. That's a helluva Sunday by any measure, and it might have saved Heath's job.

Illinois: The Illini finished 1-6 against the Top 25 and 4-9 against the top 50. They only beat two at-large teams and their best road win was at Northwestern. Still, Illinois made the field. And though I'm not sure how, I don't really mind. Because if there's anybody who deserves something good to happen after how his past four months have gone, it's Bruce Weber, by all accounts a likeable man who lost his best recruit (Eric Gordon) to a de-commitment and one of his best players (Jamar Smith) to a drunken-driving arrest stemming from a car accident. So if the worst thing that happened here is that Weber finally caught a break, I say good for him.

Duke: The Blue Devils finished 13-10 against the top 100 after losing their final three games. Air Force finished 7-5 against the top 100 after losing its final four games. Duke received a No. 6 seed; Air Force didn't get invited. So the lesson is clear, and it's one we've known for a while: It's good to be Duke and it sucks to be Air Force. Which brings me to ...

Who got screwed?

Air Force: The Falcons' body of work is solid, as they beat Texas Tech, UNLV and Stanford. But they did lose their last four, so I can't feel sorry for them. If a team can't beat Wyoming on a neutral court, I'm not going to spend much time defending it. But again, Air Force's body of work was good enough for an at-large bid. The only problem was it spent the past two weeks letting its body go (who hasn't done that?).

Syracuse: The Orange finished 8-8 against the top 100 with wins over Georgetown, Villanova and at Marquette. That's not spectacular, I know. But there are a slew of teams in the field that don't have three wins as good as those three.

Missouri State: Barry Hinson's Bears beat Wisconsin, went 9-9 against the top 100 and only had one loss outside the top 100 (to Evansville). Still, that wasn't enough even though two Big Ten teams that couldn't beat Wisconsin received bids with inferior credentials. Consider: Purdue couldn't beat Wisconsin while going 9-9 against the top 100 with two losses outside the top 100 (to Indiana State and Minnesota). But Purdue made it and Missouri State didn't. Illinois couldn't beat Wisconsin while going 8-11 against the top 100. But Illinois made it and Missouri State didn't. Does that sound fair? Of course not, and it's also worth noting the Bears would be 10-8 against the top 100 if not for a timing error at Saint Louis that allowed the Billikens to score a game-winning bucket after the buzzer. So while I did not agree two weeks ago when Hinson implied the Missouri Valley Conference was as tough as the Big 12, if he feels his team got shafted, I'd have to agree on that point.

Three things I learned Sunday

1. The selection committee claims it doesn't look at league affiliations. But it does. It must. Otherwise, there's no logic behind some of this stuff. Take Arkansas, for example. What happened there is once the committee knew it was taking six Big Ten teams, it knew it couldn't just take four SEC teams because the SEC rated as the second-best league in the nation while the Big Ten was fourth. So at some point over the past few days, the committee decided to take a fifth SEC team, and by Sunday morning the best option was Arkansas, even if by Sunday afternoon it didn't look that way at all. And that, I'm telling you, is how Arkansas ended up in the field. Nobody will convince me otherwise.

2. People talk about how having a high RPI can protect you, but it really only protects BCS schools. This year the top four RPIs omitted from the field were Air Force (30), Missouri State (36), Bradley (38) and Drexel (39). Non-BCS schools, every one of them. Last year the top three RPIs omitted were Missouri State (21), Hofstra (30) and Creighton (39). Non-BCS schools, every one of them. Two years ago the top three RPIs omitted were Miami of Ohio (39), Wichita State (45) and Buffalo (46). Non-BCS schools, every one of them. And if you want to call that a coincidence, I want to call you an idiot.