Akron Gets Hosed Twice

 

Whether or not the Akron Zips men’s basketball team deserved to be in the NCAA Basketball Championships is debatable.  The Mid American Conference as usual is a one bid league and with the Zips loss to Miami (OH) on Saturday night, they probably knew they were not going to make the field of 65.  However, that they will not be playing another game this season is a crime.

 

Yes, yes, I know about Akron’s RPI rating in the 60’s, which is a critical number for the people who make up the field which will play for the college hoops title.  However, how much of that is the difficulty a good mid major program has in scheduling good teams.  It is a no win situation for the team from the Big 10, ACC, or any other power conference to play a team like Akron.  Therefore, it is tough to improve the RPI rating. 

 

That’s the deal with mid major conferences.  It is likely the Horizon League’s Butler would not have made the tournament had they not won the Preseason NIT in November.  Conferences like the Horizon or the MAC generally only get one team, its champion into the NCAA Tournament.  Could Akron beat teams like Stanford or Arkansas on a neutral floor?  Quite possibly.  But, fair or not, and I think it’s unfair, that’s the way the system plays out.

 

However, to be ignored by the NIT is a joke.  The Zips finished their season at 26-7.  They won 26 games.  I don’t care who you are playing, 26 wins is a lot of victories.  Toledo gets the automatic NIT bid since they were deemed to be the regular season MAC champ because they were 14-2 in the league as opposed to Akron’s 13-3.  The Rockets’ overall record was 19-12, and they were just 8-10 on the road, compared to the Zips’ 11-5 mark away from the JAR. 

 

That’s not to say Toledo doesn’t deserve to be in the NIT.  The Rockets did lose to Kansas, Drexel, and Vanderbilt and defeated Virginia Commonwealth, who made the tournament.  They did play a tougher slate than Akron.  But, the NIT committee did pick Utah State who finished 4th in the WAC with a 23-11 record and San Diego State, who wound up 4th in the Mountain West with a 21-10 mark.  Akron couldn’t have been selected ahead of these two teams? 

 

It’s a shame that the seniors at Akron do not get the opportunity to play at least one more game after the season they had.  Especially after they lost the MAC title game on a disputed buzzer beater.  They have more to complain about than the teams who finished 6th or 7th in a power conference and didn’t get picked for the NCAA’s.

 

KM