NC State Basketball
Stop with the Clemson Should be in Instead of NC State Narrative
So apparently Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas think Clemson should have made the NCAA Tournament instead of NC State.
Vitale’s thoughts:
“What do you think the feeling must be at Clemson when they see NC State there, who they beat not once, not twice, but three times?” Vitale said. “And you see the margin of victories.” (Link)
“… I don’t know how you can really justify that. That really troubles me.”
Bilas’ thoughts:
“… I’m sensitive to the whole, ‘We beat NC State!’ three times thing, because that’s fair. I think head-to-head is a big factor.” (Link)
Look, I get it. Clemson beat NC State three times this year. They owned the Wolfpack. In fact, they have won 6 straight. No offense to the Tigers, but in my opinion, that’s unacceptable.
But just because you beat a team three times doesn’t mean you deserve to get in over that team. What you did in the rest of your body of work matters as well.
Clemson also finished 14-6 in the ACC compared to NC State’s 12-8 conference record.
They even had 4 Quad 1 wins, going 4-4 against Quad 1 opponents. NC State was 1-6 against Quad 1 opponents.
So Clemson has the same amount of overall wins as NC State, more conference wins, and more Quad 1 wins.
What about wins against teams that were ranked in the Top-25 when the game was played? NC State has 2 and Clemson has 1.
When it comes down to it, the problem wasn’t Clemson’s wins, it was their losses. The Tigers had 2 Quad 3 losses and 2 Quad 4 losses. They lost to South Carolina, Loyola Chicago, Boston College and Louisville.
Do I think this makes NC State a better team with a better resume than Clemson? No, not necessarily.
In fact, I think that Clemson should be an NCAA Tournament team.
With that being said, just because I believe that Clemson should be in the Dance, doesn’t mean that I think NC State shouldn’t.
Why not make the argument that Clemson should have made it over Arizona State or Pitt, who ranked 66th and 67th in the NET Rankings. Clemson finished 60th in the NET Rankings. For perspective, NC State finished ranked 44th in the NET.
Just because Clemson is deserving to be in the Dance, doesn’t mean that NC State isn’t deserving.
They both are.
Don’t discount NC State simply because Clemson was snubbed.
Giglio got it right. He said, “Clemson is mad at the wrong Wolfpack. Nevada’s Wolf Pack got into the play-in games because the committee always saves one of those four spots for a non P5 team.”
However, I do agree Clemson was tournament worthy. And if we went into the ACCT thinking “it’s us or them” for a spot and then beat that team as badly as they beat us, we’d be out of our minds just like they are. The fallacy was, it wasn’t ‘us or them.’
On another topic, did anyone see GT’s new coach press conference. I’ve seen low key coaches before, but Stoudamire sounded like he just woke up from a coma. Not very confidence inspiring. But you never know.
To me, that’s an odd hire, especially compared to who he replaces.
Pastner had a great track record, he was the CUSA COY one year, won their tournament a couple of times, and won the league a couple of times. He was a hot property in the college coaching world. Stoudamire only has 5 years experience as HC, and only had one winning season. A career losing record both in the WCC league and overall.
It’s a weird coincidence that both Pastner and Stoudamire played at Arizona.
The NET is seriously flawed. My best example…. If you beat a team, no matter if they are ranked higher or lower than you, the loss hurts the other team’s NET and can result in hurting your own NET ranking. I personally think the Duke and UNC not living up to expectations hurts the reputation of the entire ACC unfairly. And like it or not, there really is not enough OOC play in the mega conferences to justify comparing the power 5 teams..agreeing with Dof87.
On a totally different note, Shakeel Moore missed a wide open 3 that would have beat Pitt. Pitt even missed a gimme tip of the missed shot. Heartbreaker. Prolly lots more (no pun) drama to come. PS Clemson can pound sand.
I was torn between pulling for Shakeel and wanting Pitt to win and help prove the ACC was slighted in selections.
I hate he had to go out missing that shot, but he was a big reason they were in position to win.
I hate I can’t edit mistakes. Of course I meant Miss St missed a tip of Moore’s missed three. They were only down one. Crazy game. I think I read there were 21 lead changes. Hope Pitt can win another one. Not as much as I hope the Pack wins Friday!
I agree Clemson should have been in the tournament, along wit NC State. Yes, the argument that it should be either Clemson or NC State flies in the face of the ‘body of work’ and selection criteria they claim to use. Tell Dicky there are other teams in the field below NC State. Clemson would need to displace those teams before they would displace us. Like you said, Did Arizona State really deserve to be in over Clemson? THAT is the question they should be asking first. I think its clear that State deserved to be in over Arizona State.… Read more »