Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Big 12 Coaches Weigh In On Buffs' Exclusion
March 14, 2011 | Men's Basketball, B.G. Brooks
Not that this soothes anything or makes the decision any more palatable, but the Buffs might have gotten more national exposure in the last 24 hours for not making the NCAA Tournament than they would have for being included in the 68-team field.
It was exposure that Coach Tad Boyle and his team could have done without. The Buffs would have settled for quietly slipping into the Big Dance and making their noise once they got there. "I'll be honest with you, I can't get angry because I'm (still) in shock," Boyle said. "I'm sorry our players had to go through it; it was no fun at all."
The Buffs weren't alone in believing they belonged. The Big 12 Conference held its final coaches teleconference on Monday morning, and CU's cause and exclusion were among the common threads. Kansas State Coach Frank Martin, whose team lost three games to CU - two as a ranked team, was "shocked . . . obviously they were better than us, at least they showed that on the court."
Texas A&M Coach Mark Turgeon, among Boyle's closest friends in the profession, might have been as distraught as his pal when Sunday's Selection Show ended and CU was left without an at-large bid.
"I was probably more upset for Tad than I was happy for us," said Turgeon, who spoke with Boyle at length on Sunday night. "When the Selection Show was over I talked to the team and I was down, I was down. I was just stunned that (the Buffs) weren't in.
"When I saw Texas come up as a four (seed), I knew we were all in trouble. I turned around to my wife and said, 'Tad's not going to get in.' But Tad's not a guy who sits around and cries and feels sorry for himself. He's a guy who moves on, a tough guy. I'm disappointed for his seniors and disappointed for him personally. I thought he did a tremendous job with his team this year."
Kansas Coach Bill Self was in agreement with Turgeon's last assessment, as well as his first. After Self's team defeated CU 90-83 in the Big 12 tournament semifinals, he paid tribute to the Buffs and said they would be a "dangerous" draw for any team in the NCAAs.
Said Self: "I think every coach in our conference . . . without any hesitation will say those guys deserve to be in the tournament. Now, I don't have any of the other tournament teams' resumes in front of me, and to be an expert you have to study it - and I'm not (an expert). But I just can't imagine a team that finishes 8-8, really 10-9 (counting the Big 12 tournament) in the third-best league in the country and with four wins over top five seeds . . . that to me is unthinkable, that to me is unbelievable.
"Six wins against the top 50 . . . there were teams on the bubble that had two wins or three wins against the top 50 - they had six. I'm hurting for Tad and his players, because I think they really deserve to be in the field without question."
Self, whose team is one of four No. 1 NCAA seeds, pointed out that CU has a likely lottery pick (Alec Burks) and that given the Buffs' four wins against top five seeds - three wins over fifth-seeded Kansas State, one against No. 4 Texas - a case could be made "that Colorado had the best wins in our league this year. Texas beat us, but other than that, those are some of the best wins. I think it's sad they're not in."
Nebraska Coach Doc Sadler, whose team also landed in the NIT, said of CU's exclusion, "I would think the Big 12 office is shaking their head and wondering the same thing. I know all the coaches are. Tad had a great season and was probably was playing like the third- or fourth-best team in our league in the last two weeks. But I wasn't the room when they made that decision. I'm sure they've got their reasons."
Texas lost a 22-point lead in Boulder and was beaten 91-89 by CU. Longhorns Coach Rick Barnes recalled his tenure at Providence and being snubbed by the NCAA when he and his players believed they were deserving of a bid.
"Honestly, it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, tell them that we didn't make it," Barnes said. "I know (the Buffs) are devastated and I know they'll handle it right . . . you have to give Tad and his staff great credit for what they did. They had a year where they made great strides."
Boyle and his team were back on the Coors Events Center court Monday afternoon practicing for Wednesday night's first-round NIT game against Texas Southern (7 p.m., ESPN3.com). The mood was upbeat. Boyle tried to keep the work different and competitive, but fun. He admitted many NIT games are won by the team that most wants to be there. Hangovers from NCAA snubs can be common for all but the most resilient teams, which the Buffs have been throughout their 21-win season.
A radio guy on Monday's conference call asked Boyle the "Big 12 conspiracy" question - that being, if the Buffs weren't on their way to the Pac-12, would the Big 12 and Commissioner Dan Beebe (he was on the 10-member NCAA Selection Committee) "fought a little harder" to get the Buffs into the dance.
Boyle didn't bite. "I've heard that and I don't buy into it, quite frankly. I really don't," he said. "I think the committee made their decision based on what they thought was best. But I don't think there's a conspiracy theory against Colorado. I don't buy into that."
If Boyle and the Buffs had the biggest beef, there were other Big 12 coaches who believed the entire league was slighted by getting five into the NCAAs and in the way its tournament-bound teams were seeded. KU was a No. 1, Texas a No. 4, K-State a No. 5, Texas A&M a No. 7, and Missouri - which CU defeated when the Tigers were ranked in the Top 10 - was a No. 11.
"Texas getting a four seed blows my mind," Self said. "I thought they had a two locked up . . . you go from maybe being the best team in the country three weeks ago to a four seed?"
Turgeon was more succinct: "The Big 12 didn't get good seeds, I don't think there's any question about that . . . I thought we deserved a little bit more, finishing third."
Mizzou Coach Mike Anderson argued that with his league's collective non-conference wins (141) being second only to the Big East, the Big 12 should have gotten more than five teams in the NCAAs. (The Big East got 11 teams in.)
"I thought our conference was as good as it was last year," said Anderson, referring to the record seven Big 12 teams that made last year's tournament. "I thought it was a slight . . . you've got some very good basketball teams in this conference. I didn't see it coming. I thought at least six teams would get in. From that standpoint as a coach in this conference, it's disappointing."
Boyle believes late-season losses by Texas, K-State and Mizzou dropped them in the seeding process and probably factored into CU's fate. The Big 12, said Boyle, "had teams that didn't finish as strong and I think that probably hurt us in seeding, which is never a good thing. Outside of Kansas, I don't think we got a lot of respect in the league. That's unfortunate, because our league all year long - you look at the non-conference records of all our teams and I think our league is pretty well-respected. But it sure didn't come out that way in the end."
If you buy into the theory that Beebe somehow sabotaged one of the departing teams, listening to the coaches remaining in the league leads you to believe that Beebe didn't protect their interests either - which is far-fetched, at best.
Rather than dark forces plotting against CU, Boyle seemed inclined to attach blame to human error. "In the game of college basketball, players make mistakes, coaches make mistakes, officials make mistakes . . . now we're seeing that the committee makes mistakes, too," he said. "We're all human; it's part of life."
Not the sunny side, to be sure, but not the darkest side either . . . not by a long shot.
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
