USC Got Screwed By NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, Has Better Résumé than Arizona State
USC got left out of the NCAA Tournament, despite being projected to make the dance as an at-large by major bracketologists like Joe Lunardi and Howie Schwab.
USC pretty self-evidently had a better résumé than Pac-12 conference mates Arizona State:
USC finished second in the Pac-12, Arizona State finished ninth. USC made it to the Pac-12 tournament championship, Arizona State got bounced in the opening round.
— Max Meyer (@TheMaxMeyer) March 11, 2018
Arizona State makes the NCAA tournament, USC doesn't. That is UNBELIEVABLE.
Yes, Arizona State had big November and December wins over Xavier and Kansas, but they frankly did not have a better overall body of work than USC. “There’s no way you can look at those teams and think it shouldn’t be reversed,” our managing editor Jason Lisk said on Periscope.
Arizona State was 66th in RPI, and that includes their big wins. Bad losses were not adequately weighed — Arizona State lost nine games to teams that didn’t make the tournament. Alas, USC did not have the big statement win that the committee could point to twice with ASU. (Yes, ASU beat USC 80-78 in February; the game was at home and USC never got a rematch either on their own home court or in the conference tournament.)
As our editor-in-chief Jason McIntyre and Yahoo reporter Pat Forde have observed, it sure seems like USC — along with Louisville and Oklahoma State — were dinged on the margins of the Dance because of their involvement in the much-ballyhooed FBI investigation.