Thanks Billy!

We are now nine days removed from the announcement of the 2006 NCAA Tournament field and I am sure that Selection Committee Chairman Craig Littlepage wants more than anything to be outwardly smug. He's probably sitting back and smiling when he thinks about the work that his nine charges performed. He probably wants to take all of the criticism and shove it right up CBS's ass. He feels vindicated. He feels justifed.

Thanks Billy P-acc-ker. Thanks a lot.

Why thank Billy P-acc-ker, you ask? Because it is his stupidity (with an assist from Jim Nantz) that allows Littlepage to incorrectly feel this way. Because it is his on-air rant about major-conference teams and whether they deserved to be in the field of 65 that has gotten everyone's attention and therefore masks the real issues with the selection process.

Look, the committee got it wrong and very little, if anything, has happened during the tournament to change my mind.

For those of you too mesmerized by those stupid "Vendetta" commercials to pay attention (what is that movie about?), P-acc-ker and Nantz took Littlepage to task for the inclusion of mid-major schools at the expense of teams like Florida State, Maryland and Michigan (read: schools from the power conferences). P-acc-ker and Nantz made a series of non-sensical statistic arguments about how the power conferences haveall the success in the Tournament, while the little schools generally fail to accomplish much of anything. P-acc-ker's argument in a nutshell? That George Mason, Bradley, and Northern Iowa have no business in the tournament, while the exclusion of the power-conference schools referenced above represents the biggest travesty since Donna was not allowed to graduate with the senior class because she got drunk at the prom.

So now Littlepage gets to sit back and gloat. George Mason is in the Sweet 16. Bradley knocked off a couple of big-time schools in Kansas and Pittsburgh and will still be playing this coming weekend. Missouri Valley regular season champion Wichita State will get their moment in the sun (and their tuba player's mother will probably get air time on CBS). Now it seems as though I need a calculator to count the number of times I have heard in the national media that the Committee has been vindicated and proven "right."

Like I said. Thanks Billy P-acc-ker. Thanks a lot.

You see, the Committee did fail and, in general, the results of the tournament have proven how nutso the selections were. The Missouri Valley should have gotten only four teams in? That's ludicrous. I may not be much of a Valley fan (as faitful readers know), but go back and scroll through my posts. I thought that the Valley actually got screwed. Tom and I agreed that both Missouri State and Creighton should have joined their Valley bretheren in the Dance. I'd argue that the success of Bradley and Wichita State has proven that the Valley deserved even more credit...and more teams.

Perhaps the biggest schmoke is Valley commissioner Doug Elgin. Elgin has been so clouded by P-acc-ker's rambling that he has now seemingly forgotten that it is his conference that got jobbed. Before the selections, Elgin was openly campaigning for five Valley teams (with a secret hope that six would get in). Now, he should be screaming to the masses..."See, I told you! We have proved it on the court and deserved more respect!!!!" Instead, I hear him on national radio talking about how the Committee's decisions have been proven right on the mark. How do you think the omitted teams mentioned above feel? I'm not sure I would expect a Holiday card from either Omaha, Nebraska or Springfield, Missouri his year, Doug.

So who should have been left home? After the selections were announced, I immediately recoiled at the thought of Air Force and Utah State in the tournament. They didn't belong then and they don't belong now. What? The Falcons stayed relatively close to Illinois? Maybe, but did you actually ever think that they had a chance to win the game? Illinois did not play particularily well last Thursday evening, yet still won fairly easily. In the other game, Washington pretty much toyed with Utah State before putting them out of their misery.

Let's look at the seeds. Tennessee a number two? I didn't think that they deserved such a high seed then and I certainly don't think so now. Nevada a number five? Uh, no. And then there is Syracuse who suddenly remembered that they were a mediocre team at best for the first three months of the season and reverted back to pre-Big East Tournament form. For those of you too upset over the lack of "Spring Break Shark Attack" commercials to watch the tournament, the OrangeMEN got bounced before Derrick Coleman could find time to roll himself away from the buffet table and congratulate the overrated Gerry McNamara on his 0-6 from the field, two-point performance.

You missed the point, Billy P-acc-ker and, as result, the Committee gets to go on believing that they did their job.

Thanks.

* The timing of this post and my heartfelt thank-you to Billy P-acc-ker is especially relevant given the untimely death of Ray Meyer. I must admit that my spelling of Billy's last name is not my own creative work, but rather was originally shared with me in the mid-80's by Coach Ray. Coach Ray always had a thing for calling people by nicknames (I was "hat" for a number of years for a reason that many of you can easily imagine). He was a wonderful man with a big heart and I will always remember him and his kindness (not to mention the cookies that his late-wife Marge made at the lake home in Three Lakes, Wisconsin). Good Bye Coach...