OSU's Snub & New Quadrant System

This may be one of the craziest NCAA tournaments we will witness. With Marshall making its first NCAA tourney since 1987, a headstrong Michigan team looking to kick ass and take names, and potential NBA-greats on amateur teams. I mean come on, Alabama wouldn't be Alabama this year without Collin Sexton.

More questions to be posed, who will be this year's Cinderella? Will a one seed ultimately take it all again this year? Will your favorite team end up taking the title? The correct answer for all of these is "I don't know." This tournament is UNPREDICTABLE. If I've learned anything from watching the March tournament, it's that ANYTHING could happen.

To mark the first instance of the unpredictable, the Oklahoma Sooners led by Trae Young, a top NBA prospect in this year's upcoming draft, somehow made 'the dance' over Oklahoma State. Oklahoma was anything but good down the stretch before the tournament. They lost the last 11 of 15 games, lost to Oklahoma State TWICE, and according to Dick Vitale, did not win a single road game in February.

Some critics believed the Sooners deserved to be in the tournament. ESPN's Tom Crean, also former coach at Indiana and Marquette, believes their overall "body of work" stayed consistent throughout the year, despite their record declining in February.

I agree with Dicky V. As much of a great career I believe Trae Young will have in the NBA, I do not believe the team should have made 'the dance' over OSU. Despite their weak non-conference schedule, with the new quadrant system the committee used to rank teams this year, OSU played 17 games (over half of their schedule) against teams in Quadrant 1, which is the top performing quadrant.

If you were unaware, the new quadrant system primarily ranks teams by analyzing their performance on the road and at neutral sites. This is to emphasize the importance of road/neutral games when selecting power rankings, as opposed to treating a win at home, the same as a win on the road or at a neutral site. So, does a home win against a 1-seed not equate to a non-conference win on the road? In terms of power rankings, of course not. Now the selection committee does take into account the strength of schedule for every team being considered for the tournament, but can I see instances where it would cause conflict with the new quadrant system.

Although, Oklahoma State did go 5-12 in their 17 games against Quadrant 1 teams, but that is over half the schedule played against highly favored tournament teams. Oklahoma did not do that.

Should strength of schedule trump the criteria of the quadrant system? Or vice versa? Who knows? All I know is OSU got snubbed. I don't want to take away from Oklahoma's talent or their accomplishments, I just feel like OSU deserved the spot. And I think OSU would also make a further run in the Midwest region, which is inhabited by some of the toughest tournament competition.

The madness is yet to come.