The Selection Committee Explains How Michigan State Landed in First Four
EAST LANSING – Tom Izzo isn't known for holding back.
In 2020, the MSU head coach has criticized the officials and been adamantly against the NET Rankings, the metric used to determine the NCAA tournament field.
On Sunday evening, Izzo spoke with the media following the Selection Show, and one question insinuating no Big Ten team "got screwed" spurred an interesting answer.
"Really? If that's what you think, then that's what I'll say is good … You got your opinion, I got mine," Izzo said.
The 66-year old wasn't thrilled to compete in a First Four contest for the first time in his career, nor did he probably appreciate the committee chairman's explanation.
More often than not, Selection Sunday doesn't offer much in the way of clarity for seeding. Even so, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart attempted to describe how MSU went from a Final Four team to its lowest seed in 33 tournament berths.
Barnhart acknowledged the Spartans' 12 losses and road record, which wasn't particularly impressive, especially for MSU. However, he also cited the NET Rankings of Syracuse (No. 40) and Utah State (No. 38) in comparison to Michigan State (No. 70).
"They've (Utah State) obviously had a remarkable year," said Barnhart. "They're a talented group of basketball players. We think they were worthy of an at-large bid."
And when referencing Syracuse, Barnhart said, "They had a number of wins against the teams that were in the tournament. Their net and their predictive results-based metrics were very favorable against those peers and the people that they were being grouped with at the time."
Barnhart admitted every committee member sees things differently, like "coaches who have differing styles of offenses and defenses." He also conceded the NET isn't perfect, but the "Holy Grail" of metrics doesn't exist.
Though, that doesn't make the selection/seeding process any easier to understand or accept.
The Numbers
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Syracuse defeated three tournament teams, including Virginia Tech, Clemson, and North Carolina, while Utah State finished 2-3, losing to San Diego State in the Mountain West title game.
Michigan State competed in 16 Quad 1 games, the most in Division I, and MSU finished 5-11 featuring wins over Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio State. The Spartans were 10-1 in the other quads with a Quad 2 loss to Northwestern.
Syracuse only had one Quad 1 win in seven tries with a Quad 2 and Quad 3 loss (2-7 road record). Utah State ended with a 2-6 mark in Quad 1 with a combined three losses at the Quad 2 and 3 levels.
"Those wins, their (MSU) overall strength of record, obviously secured them a spot in the field," Barnhart said. "The other part of the equation is they did have 12 losses; they struggled on the road; many of those were against quality competition."
Izzo indicated Michigan State should have avoided Rutgers after a 20-day layoff due to COVID-19 and admitted: "it seemed like some teams got a tremendous benefit from not playing games." The Spartans played 26 games, one shy of the NCAA maximum, but Syracuse didn't make up a game vs. Florida State (ACC Tournament Champs) or Wake Forest.
"As I look back, would I have been better off not playing them? Did I hurt my team some? Maybe. But we did what we were supposed to do," said Izzo. "I look around the country, I see some teams that played a lot less games, and I think had some benefit."
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