Luck Is Everything and Nothing
Now that the field of 64 has been set, we have some time to burn before the action gets under way. There's always time for second guessing, and a big part of that conversation is a short list of teams that wound up on the short end of the stick.
The Big Boys
There were two teams in particular, Mississippi State and Virginia Tech, who a lot of pundits say got a raw deal, but if you look closer, there's a lot of hot air and no substance to those arguments.
Mississippi State
Everyone cried foul at this omission, partly because the Bulldogs made it to the SEC tournament championship game and took Kentucky to overtime - again - before coming a John Wall buzzer-beater from an automatic bid. It was also partly because Minnesota sneaked in after being embarrassed in their conference title game.
But what do the details show? Sure, MSU pushed Kentucky, but they didn't beat them, and their only other big win was against Richmond. Minnesota, meanwhile, beat Ohio State and Butler, and almost beat Purdue the second time around.
Virginia Tech
The Hokies appeared to have an even more legitimate beef, because they not only were left out (the first 10-win ACC team to suffer that fate), but a team they beat in the regular season that finished below them in the conference (Wake Forest) did get in. Once again, though, if you look at the details a different story unfolds.
Sure, the Hokies went 13-1 in non-conference games, but their second toughest opponent was a Georgia team that finished with an RPI of 107. Wake Forest, on the other hand, went 3-1 against the RPI top 40. Add in conference play (Tech lost to conference bottom-feeder Miami, Wake beat conference co-champ Maryland), and it's clear the committee picked the stronger team to keep playing.
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