Mitch Barnhart Explains Why Louisville Did Not Make NCAA Tournament
(Photo of Mitch Barnhart: The Lexington Herald-Leader)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After a long weekend waiting on the bubble, the Louisville men's basketball program's worst fears were confirmed, as they were excluded from the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
Following the conclusion of the Selection Show on CBS, Division I Men’s Basketball Committee chair and University of Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart was interviewed by the panel of Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis to discuss the newly-released bracket.
When asked by Gumbel about Louisville's exclusion from the tournament, and specifically if their COVID pauses played a role, this is what he had to say:
"Well, certainly (COVID) pauses have been a part of that conversation. What we've noticed was - they were on our under consideration board, deep into the discussions that we had. The challenge was, you had two teams that made really remarkable tournament runs in Georgetown and Oregon State. They were not under the under consideration board, and as they took those spots, some people had to fall off. Unfortunately, you had an opportunity during the course of the year to get your resume where you want it to be, and at the end of the day, if it's not where you want it to be, you have a chance to go into the tournament and secure the AQ (automatic qualifier). Two teams did that, and in process of doing that, they took two bids away that would have been available in the at-large pool from the under consideration pool."
Georgetown (13-12, 7-9 BE) captured the Big East Championship, while Oregon State (17-12, 10-10 P12) secured the Pac-12 Championship, resulting in both clinching automatic berths for the Big Dance.
Louisville opened up the 2020-21 season at 9-1, and were ranked as high as the No. 16 team in the nation. But due to COVID issues, injuries, and at times offensive inconsistencies, they went 4-6 in the second half of the season to finish at 13-7 and 8-5 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Cardinals failed to collect a substantial amount of quality wins, going 1-6 in Quadrant 1 of their NCAA Tournament resume, with the lone win coming at Duke. They were also bounced by the Blue Devils in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
The selection committee listed Louisville as the first team on the 'First Four Out', alongside Colorado State, Saint Louis and Ole Miss, and designated them as a replacement teams should COVID-19 issues arise with any teams in the tournament field. The deadline for a team to withdraw is Tuesday, Mar. 16 at 6:00 p.m EST.
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