Selection Sunday horror stories
— -- The announcers had moved on, from announcing the NCAA tournament field to explaining it, dissecting how teams were chosen and why others weren't, looking for the upsets and the favorites.
In his basement, Barry Hinson was trying to do the same thing -- to explain it. Only he couldn't because he didn't have an explanation.
What the hell just happened? His 2006 Missouri State team, 20-8 overall, winners against NCAA tournament teams Arkansas and Wisconsin-Milwaukee, owners of an RPI of 21, didn't make the 2006 field. Air Force did, with an RPI of 30, but not Missouri State because, well, because why? Because they lost to Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament? Those 40 minutes negated everything else?
People were in tears; a photographer from the local Springfield News Leader even snapped a picture of Hinson's crying daughter, in what became the ultimate a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words moment.
And the players, they looked like zombies, most looking anywhere but at Hinson, waiting for him to say something but not really wanting to hear it.
"It's like the last few minutes of 'Marley & Me,''' said Hinson, now the head coach at Southern Illinois. "My voice is quivering, eyes welling, tongue pressed to the roof of my mouth. I'm petting Marley saying, 'It's going to be OK,' when I know it's really not.''
There will be another Barry Hinson on Sunday, of that you can be certain. As sure as Kentucky will be the overall No. 1 seed, some team somewhere will be on the outside looking in, snubbed by the selection committee for a weak nonconference record, a crummy RPI, a lack of dominant wins or whatever whim the committee chooses as its explainer.
And some coach will be left to explain it to his team.
The coaches left out are a fraternity of sorts, one that no one wants to join. Maybe better, they are stars of college basketball's own reality show, publicly jilted by the committee much like the third girl in a two-rose ceremony on "The Bachelor."
Bruiser Flint joined the ignominious club in 2007, and then renewed his membership in 2012. Before the '07 season the Drexel coach called George Mason athletic director Tom O'Connor. O'Connor had just finished serving as selection committee chair and Flint wanted to pick his brain to see what the committee was looking for. O'Connor stressed the need to play tough non-league games and do well in conference.
So when Drexel that year went on the road and beat Villanova and Syracuse and finished 13-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association, Flint felt pretty confident.
"Our conference tournament finishes a week early, so that whole week I'm on the radio, doing TV because I felt like we were in pretty good shape,'' Flint said.
So much so that Flint happily invited the television cameras to hang with his Dragons for the inevitable celebration on Selection Sunday.
Only it didn't come. The teams were announced. None were named Drexel University.
"I'm saying, 'It's OK, we're still going to play. We've got the NIT,''' Flint said. "They're just like, 'Yeah, whatever buddy.' They don't want to hear that.''
Fast-forward to 2012. The Dragons finish 27-6, losing to VCU in the tournament tile game.
"After 2007, I decided unless I know we're in, like an automatic bid, I'll never do that again,'' Flint said. "So it was no cameras, no interviews, none of it.''
And again, no bid.
If there is a patriarch of this sullen crew, it is, of course, Seth Greenberg. As the head coach at Virginia Tech, the ESPN analyst was once the Susan Lucci of college hoops, repeatedly nominated to the NCAA tournament, but never welcomed to the party.
None of the near misses was easy. The last, though, was the worst. That was 2011, when after being told his non-league schedule wasn't tough enough the year before, Greenberg revamped his schedule in hopes of impressing the committee.
The Hokies that year finished 21-11. They beat Duke, then ranked No. 1 in the nation, but also went just 2-5 against the tougher competition Greenberg scheduled.
Still with four seniors on his roster and feeling pretty confident, Greenberg invited the team to dinner on Selection Sunday. It hunkered down as the show started, but as the teams are being announced -- Georgia in, UAB in, VCU in -- and the spaces were dwindling, Greenberg got a sick feeling in his stomach.
He left the players and called the ACC league offices.
"They said, 'We didn't call you because we didn't want to let you know before it happened,'' Greenberg said.
He went on his deck to compose himself, and then went back to his players.
The bracket was still being announced, but Greenberg told one of his managers to turn the TV off.
"They looked at me with just complete disbelief,'' he said. "I can see it vividly as if it just happened.''
