The Right State

Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff, apparently is a big supporter of George Mason University, has been writing about the Cinderella team from Virginia. While I agree with most of what he says about UConn’s easy bracket schedule and GMU’s more difficult road, I have to disagree with him concerning having a smaller contingent of teams in the 64 team bracket. Paul writes:

A final aside — in the slimmed down version of the tournament I’d like to see, George Mason still would have had its shot. By virtue of finishing the season tied for first in the Colonial Athletic conference, they would have played off against the co-champions for the right to enter the tournament, and to play against the champion of another “mid-major” conference. Had they won both games, they would have been deep into the tournament with the opportunity to upset Connecticut or whomever.

George Mason might have made it into a smaller bracket, but other good teams would not have been so lucky. One team, Texas A&M University, made the 64 team bracket by the skin of their teeth with an at-large bid. This team went into the tournament with a 21-9 record having beaten #7 Texas in College Station and came within five points of beating them again in the Big 12 Tournament. This A&M team would not have made a slimmed down version of the tournament. The Aggies, seeded 12^th beat 5^th seed Syracuse fairly handily. But then they lost to Final Four bound LSU when a Tiger pointer made a desperation three pointer at the buzzer. I do not know if A&M could have defeated the Duke Blue Devils, but the Aggies tough defense would have made it close. For those reasons I do not support a slimmed down version of the bracket.

Tags: Sports //