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| The Saint Joseph's Hawks are the 2016 A10 Conference tournament champions. Photo: Atlantic 10 Conference |
March 14, 2016
Peter Solari Follow @4PeteSakeNY
Brooklyn, NY - St. Joseph's turned the table on VCU Sunday, to capture the Atlantic 10 Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Both teams were likely in the tournament regardless of the outcome, but the Hawks left nothing to doubt, at least for themselves, with an 87-74 win in the A10 Conference Championship at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Second seeded VCU was dominant in their first two games of the A10 tournament, wins over Massachusetts and Davidson, but fourth seeded Saint Joe's was in complete control of Sunday's final. A10 Player of the Year DeAndre Bembry led the way for the Hawks with a game high 30 points, and tournament MVP Isaiah Miles added 26 of his own, along with 12 rebounds. After missing the NCAA Tournament last year, Saint Joe's is back in the big dance for the 21st time overall.
For winning the league's automatic bid, Saint Joe's wins a trip halfway across the world to Spokane, Washington. The Hawks (27-7) were selected as an eight seed in the west region, and will open up the tournament Friday night at 10 PM against ninth-seeded Cincinnati (22-9), an at-large bid out of the American Athletic Conference.
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| Get the full game recap from The Score |
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| Complete A10 Championship bracket courtesy of Wikipedia |
VCU will also open their NCAA Tournament on Friday and will come out of the west region as well. The tenth-seeded Rams (24-10) will play seventh-seeded Oregon State (19-12), from the Pac 12 Conference, at 1:30 PM in Oklahoma City. VCU is making it's sixth straight tournament appearance, going back to their Final Four run in 2011.
And finally, A10 regular season champion Dayton, who were selected as a seven seed in the midwest region, will open the NCAA Tournament on Friday at 1 PM. The Flyers (25-7) are matched up with tenth seeded Syracuse (19-14), who have absolutely no business playing in this tournament.
Unfortunately, due to the unfounded presence of schools like Syracuse, as well as Tulsa, Saint Bonaventure got snubbed, and the A10 missed out on getting a fourth team into the field. Monmouth, out of the MAAC, was another notable snub.
University of Oklahoma Athletics Director/Chairman Joseph Castiglione, along with his tournament selection committee, did one of the worst jobs I've ever seen when it comes to selecting tournament fields. What we see is a clear bias in favor of the power conferences, and an outright slap in the face to mid-majors everywhere.
When Rutgers moved to the Big Ten Conference a couple of years ago, it made no sense to me. The Scarlet Knights are in way over their heads in that league, in both football and basketball, so what are the advantages to a move like that? Let me say, it all makes sense now.
Just by being in the Big Ten, Rutgers basketball could barely keep their heads above water for an entire season, and would still stand a better chance at an at-large tournament bid, than a team like Monmouth, who beat every high-major standing in their way, and ran the table in their league. There is that much of a bias against mid-major schools.
Of course the power conference schools should be rewarded for playing in difficult leagues, but mediocrity shouldn't be rewarded. Syracuse has a tremendous recruiting edge over a school like Monmouth, but selection committees never consider that. The fact that Syracuse can go out and get any player they want, means we should hold them to a higher standard. Sure their league is better, but so is their talent pool. Monmouth, on the other hand, gets to pick up all the crumbs that Syracuse drops. Yet, at the end of the day, Monmouth is still a better team than Syracuse is, unless you're Joseph Castiglione. They should've been rewarded for that. Syracuse and Tulsa should have been exiled to the NIT.
