The NCAA men’s basketball committee, which those who follow March Madness have come to know simply as the “selection committee”, committed its original sin all the way back in March 2000.
It was then unanimous national Player of the Year Kenyon Martin broke his leg while attempting to set a screen early in a Conference USA quarterfinal game against Saint Louis, and three days later the committee chose to assign the season’s most dominant team – a team that clearly had been headed for the very top of the bracket – a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed.
The committee has been living down to that standard for a quarter-century.
It’s time for that to end.
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It’s certainly too late for the NCAA to alter its procedures for the 2026 tournament. They will look at several teams in the field through the prism of “player availability.” They will see a Texas Tech team diminished by the absence of All-America candidate JT Toppin (ACL), North Carolina struggling to adapt without freshman superstar Caleb Wilson (thumb) and BYU lacking the perimeter shooting of veteran wing Richie Saunders (ACL, as well).
BYU is 2-4 without Saunders, although the victories came against powers Iowa State and Texas Tech. Yeah, but Texas Tech is 3-2 without Toppin, although the losses were to NCAA-bound TCU and BYU. And Carolina is 5-2 without Wilson, whose original wrist injury healed enough for him to begin practicing last week. Then he broke a thumb on the opposite hand and was lost for the year. But the five victories included only two against NCAA Tournament candidates; the Heels lost by a combined 39 points to rivals NC State and Duke.
Each might be seeded a line or two below what its season performance warrants. And if any of those teams had been living life near the tournament bubble, there’s a chance that squad would have been excluded.
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But let’s remember, Purdue is healthy and has dropped four of six. UConn is a No. 1 seed candidate but is 5-3 since early February. Houston is 3-3 in its past six games. Because of television considerations, games frequently become more difficult as March approaches and arrives. With the NFL inactive (at least on the field), leagues schedule more confrontations between the teams projected to be successful, and someone has to lose.
How do we differentiate between a team that is intact and losing difficult games and one that is missing a significant player and losing difficult games? And what if, as in the BYU-TTU example, both teams have key players absent from their rotations?
Injuries are a part of sports, though. Teams should be judged on what they achieved with or without their best lineups.
When Denver quarterback Bo Nix broke his ankle late in an overtime victory over Buffalo in the AFC Playoffs, the NFL didn’t tell the Broncos, “Tough luck, we’re sending the Bills to the AFC Championship. Better game.” Denver had to get by with backup Jarrett Stidham, and they nearly got to the Super Bowl.
The players at North Carolina, BYU and Texas Tech deserve what they earned, not some modified judgment of what they might be while lacking star players.
That likely won’t happen now, but the next group of Heels or Raiders (or Bearcats) could get justice through the selection system if the committee abandons this standard as the members rightly did the “last 10 games” standard that had been a part of the selection process until 2009.
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When this whole fiasco began with Cincinnati and Martin, the committee had nothing on which to judge the remaining Bearcats. They played 30-some minutes aware their best chance at a Four Four and national title had just felt his right leg snap in two. They played zero games in advance of the tournament with proper preparation for competing without their best offensive player and the best defender in the nation.
So the committee guessed. It was atrocious.
That same year, Arizona compiled a 21-4 record with center Loren Woods at the heart of their frontcourt, averaging 15.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.9 blocks. He missed the final six games with a back injury. Arizona went 4-2 in those games, getting swept on a road trip against Oregon and Oregon State, even though the Beavers finished three games below .500. That Arizona team received a No. 1 seed, though its record entering the NCAAs was 25-6, drastically inferior to Cincinnati’s 28-3.
The committee has had 25 tournaments to see how obvious that mistake was. What’s happened in the meantime? Some decisions in seeding that weren’t correct, and perhaps less clarity about the consequences of specific injuries.
In 2014, Kansas center Joel Embiid was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back, but less than a week before Selection Sunday, KU coach Bill Self expressed hope he could return to play “if our team is successful enough.” They lost a conference tournament semifinal, still received a No. 2 seed, then fell in a second-round March Madness game. There wasn’t enough time for Embiid to make it back.
Syracuse was 28-3 entering the 2010 Big East Tournament quarterfinals, but starting center Arinze Onuaku injured his right quadriceps muscle. Syracuse announced a day later Onuaku was “day-to-day”. The Orange still received a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. Onuaku remained day-to-day-to-day-to-day-to-day until the Orange lost to Butler in the West Region semifinals and were eliminated.
He never played another minute that season. Syracuse got what it earned, though it shouldn’t take obfuscation for that to be the case. I’m sure Onuaku was day-to-day in that March long ago. As Dodgers broadcast legend Vin Scully once said, aren’t we all?
And that’s doubly true of any team entering March Madness.
