Stage Fright

Does anyone here even want to go to the Big Dance?

It’s been a wild week of upsets all around, with the most notable being Texas Tech’s double-digit spanking of Kansas and Northwestern’s 25-point hammering narrow win over Purdue. But Kansas and Purdue can afford a slip up, as they are certain to get at-large bids to the Big Dance. The same cannot be said for the numerous bubble teams who are using this week’s games to piss away their NCAA tournament chances with upset losses to mediocre conference foes. To wit, five confounding bubble-busting results from the past few days:

• Florida loses at Mississippi State – Does the SEC deserve even two bids to the tournament? After back-to-back championships, it could be back-to-back NIT appearances for the Gators, who have lost three straight and now have what amounts to an elimination game at Kentucky on Saturday, because . . .

• Kentucky loses to Georgia AT HOME – Words are mostly inadequate to describe the frustration of the good people of Kentucky after this most appalling loss to Georgia, the worst team in the terrible SEC, a team so bad they fired their coach mid-season. Word is that the Kentucky faithful pelted coach Billy Gillispie with beer bottles on his way off the court last night. They’d better handle Florida on Saturday night, or Gillispie might not make it back to his Lexington mansion.
• Georgetown loses at St. John’s – That should do it for my hometown Hoyas. Barring a miracle run in the Big East conference tournament, they’re headed to the NIT. Two months ago, they won at UConn, were 10-1, and looked like a Final Four team. What a collapse. I’ll have to find something else to do with that big foam finger they handed out at the Louisville game.
• Cincinnati loses at South Florida – It’s one thing to suffer from a lack of marquee wins, as Cincy does, it’s another thing to start adding on absurd losses. The inexplicable loss to a team that some people don’t even know exists, much less plays in the Big East, might knock the Bearcats off the bubble for good.
• Miami loses at ACC cellar dweller Georgia Tech – Despite perhaps their best rebounding performance of the season, the Hurricanes go down on account of a season-worst 38.0% effective field goal percentage* and season-second-to-worst 64.4% opponents’ effective field goal percentage (a stunning 26.4% differential). It’ll be a shame if the nation doesn’t get to see Jack McClinton play on the big stage.
• Boston College loses at N.C. State – Nothing can surpass the loss to Harvard for worst BC defeat of the season, but losing to one of the ACC’s three worst teams the last week of the season is not how you get to the tournament. A lousy defensive night against an underrated offense.

And this isn’t even counting the bubble teams who needed big wins against top-notch opponents this week, but couldn’t get them (Notre Dame losing to Villanova, Virginia Tech to UNC, and Maryland to Wake Forest).

Congrats, on the other hand, to Minnesota and Oklahoma State, who filled the void left open by these embarassing losses with solid wins against Wisconsin and Kansas State, respectively. At least somebody is playing like they want to Dance.

*Effective FG percentage is regular FG percentage recalculated to account for the greater value of a made 3-point shot (by crediting it as 1.5 made field goals instead of just 1).