Virginia men's basketball season in review, Questionable decisions by the NCAA selection committee

UVA

If you go back and look at my season prediction post on Nov. 11, I predicted that Virginia would finish the regular season with a record of 14-16, including a 5-11 mark in the ACC. This prediction was made when I thought Mike Scott would be on the team the entire season. Obviously, I didn’t like our chances at the beginning of the season, even though I thought then that Tony Bennett was a coach that could get the program back to the NCAA tournament.

A couple of impressive early-season showings at Minnesota and Virginia Tech, both wins, helped to elevate Wahoo fans’ expectations for the team. At that point, I was beginning to think 8-8, possibly even a 9-7 mark in the ACC, was possible. And could it be that we were a worthy bubble team?

However, the team started to falter a bit, and then Scott injured his ankle. He came back against Seattle, but we lost that game even though he came off the bench and contributed 12 points and eight rebounds. We looked awful in that loss to Seattle, and that was with him in the lineup. A game or so after the Seattle loss, we scored 47 points in a 13-point loss to Iowa State at home that I witnessed in person. Again, just plain awful. As bad as we had played, I thought maybe it was because Iowa State was a good team. They were 11-2 when we played them. Well, they ended up with around 15 total wins, and three in the Big 12. So no, they weren’t good. We just played very badly.

We had played and won that early-season ACC game down in Blacksburg and I was seriously thinking we would be doing well to finish with three or four wins in the ACC. We were capable of being a solid team with Scott, but without him, we’d have no chance.

Luckily, I ended up being wrong. Virginia surprised everyone by going 7-9 in the ACC and tying Maryland for seventh place. If the Cavs could’ve held on to late leads on the road at Wake Forest and at Miami, they could’ve been 9-7. Virginia won four of its last five regular season games and appeared on a roll as the ACC tournament was starting. Miami ended Virginia’s season, though, with another late comeback in the ACC tourney’s first round.

The Cavs ended up with an overall record of 16-15. So with Scott at the beginning of the year, I predicted 14 wins. Without him, I was thinking 10, maybe less. So despite blowing some leads and enduring numerous scoring droughts, the Hoos did pretty well considering the circumstances. They surpassed my expectations. It’s funny how a few wins raise expectations. Every Cavalier fan obviously felt awful about the way the season ended with a 10-point blown lead to Miami, but the team actually performed at a relatively high level compared to expectation. So really, we should be happy with the team’s overall performance.

Mustapha Farrakhan, a player who, throughout his career was inconsistent and streaky at best, easily had his best year as both a scorer and leader. He really stepped up when the team needed guidance. Joe Harris, KT Harrell, and, at the end of the year, Akil Mitchell, were all freshmen who made significant contributions. I think Harris in particular will be a player ACC teams end up hating after he hangs up his Cavalier jersey for good. Assane Sene, he with the cinderblock hands, actually ended up being a player you didn’t mind catching the ball in the post. He became a decent-to-solid scoring threat in the paint and really helped out with offensive put backs and rebounds on both ends of the court. It was evident that we played better with him on the floor. Sammy Zeglinski, though he undoubtedly helped Virginia lose the lead to Miami in the ACC tourney, played better as the year wore on and was an absolute assassin beyond the arc in the team’s last regular season game, a 14-point road win at Maryland. Jontel Evans continued to be a bulldog on defense and, at times, showed an ability to drive to the hoop for a layup (and he made some, too!) and also ended up making more jump shots that I thought he was capable of.

It was amazing what Bennett was able to squeeze out of this team. The team still is mainly Dave Leitao’s guys, but or Bennett to wring 16 wins out of this squad is impressive. Our best player was Farrakhan after Scott went down, and Mu was never more than a third scoring option at best in his other three seasons with the team. For goodness sake, Will Sherrill, a former walk-on, was seen as a valuable piece to the team! I’m not saying Sherrill wasn’t good, he was better than a typical walk-in, but for a walk-on to be someone you count on for holding a team together, that’s saying something. When you step back and really evaluate the season, you have to feel good. Bennett did a great job in battling through some injuries, some tough times, and came out with a winning record.

Being a Wahoo, it is never easy to be optimistic, but I am about next season. We should be getting a healthy Scott back. This season’s freshmen will be sophomores. Zeglinski should be back and healthy. Evans will be a year older and will have another year to work on his offensive game (he improved from his first to his second year, for sure). And in the post, we will have an improved Sene back for his senior season along with one of this season’s best recruits, who didn’t even play, James Johnson. Johnson redshirted so he will be an option next year. If Scott can perform at least as good as he was starting to perform this year, about 16 points and10 rebounds per game, Mitchell chips in some points, hustle, and energy, Sene continues to improve offensively and defensively, and Johnson contributes six to eight points per game, watch out. We could be quite formidable in the paint.

Many fans are already predicting a Big Dance appearance next season. I’m going to approach the situation cautiously optimistic. If our main rivals in Blacksburg have shown us anything the past couple years, it’s that breaking through and being a consistent NCAA team is difficult. Even with an extended field of 68 teams this season, several teams were left out of the tourney, including the Hokies. Virginia could very well end up with 20 wins next season but not go dancing.

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NCAA TOURNAMENT
The field is set and the tournament kicks off tonight with two play-in games--the ACC's own Clemson Tigers vs. UAB at 9 p.m. in a matchup of 12 seeds and, before that game, Arkansas-Little Rock and UNC-Asheville face off. Clemson was one of the last couple team to make it into the tournament since they are playing in a play-in game. Overall, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the selection committee's at-large picks for the dance. Clemson, UAB, VCU, USC, and Michigan State are all questionable picks in my estimation.
Before the selections were made, I thought the ACC might actually get six teams in--the four it got in plus Virginia Tech and Boston College. Clemson beat both of those teams in recent games so I guess that is how they got the advantage. I still think the ACC maybe should have gotten at least five teams, despite Clemson being a questionable selection.
USC getting a bid is a real head scatcher for me. The Trojans are 19-14 and have an RPI in the high 60s. While they had some decent wins over Arizona, Washington, UCLA, Tennessee, and Texas, they also have losses to Rider, Bradley, Nebraska, TCU, Oregon State, and Oregon (twice).
I also thought a team like Michigan State, also 19-14, didn't really deserve a bid and got in on its leagacy as a big-time performer in past tournaments. The Spartans didn't really have any bad losses, but they also didn't have many good wins.
Colorado, despite a very poor out of conference schedule, probably has the biggest reason to complain for not getting an invite. Colorado was 21-13 and had an RPI in the 60s, but had wins over Missouri, Oklahoma State, Kansas State (three times), and Texas. They finished with an 8-8 record in the Big 12, but went 6-3 over their last nine games, getting eliminated in the Big 12 tournament in a tough seven-point loss to Kansas.
I'd like to spend more time talking about who got in and who was left out, but the tourney starts tonight, so that's when the real fun begins. If the conference tourneys were any indication, we should all expect an exciting NCAA tourney. Tons of games had buzzer beaters or went down to the wire.
Enjoy filling out your brackets everyone!