Well, Michigan State Basketball is officially in the NCAA Tournament, but fans have a right to be annoyed about their placement in the field.
The Spartans will face UCLA in a First Four play-in game on Thursday for the 11-seed. If they win that game, they will face BYU. The draw itself isn’t terrible, but the fact that MSU will be in a play-in game seems laughable considering the fact that the Spartans beat Michigan, Ohio State, and Illinois at the end of the season.
Syracuse was able to avoid a play-in game despite only beating one ranked team all season and only winning 2 road games all season… Michigan State is the only team in the country with more than one win over a top-5 team, and they have three…
When asked about Michigan State’s placement, NCAA Selection Committee chair Mitch Barnhart gave a pretty lousy excuse, saying: “…we thought it would be a heck of a way to start the tournament off.”
Barnhart essentially, perhaps by accident, admits that MSU was stuck in that play-in game as a ratings draw to kick off the Tournament. If that was really the reasoning, that is a slap in the face to the players and the program who will now have to win an additional game if they want to win a National Championship.
NCAA selection committee chair Mitch Barnhart: "Where it is, is where it lands. And we thought it would be a heck of a way to start the tournament off." Says he mentioned that "facetiously."
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 14, 2021
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