Chatelain: Duke's draw good, but Jayhawks' is a bit rocky

Forget the perennial debates over who's in and who's out.

Illinois got omitted, Utah State squeaked in. Virginia Tech sulked, Minnesota celebrated.

So what.

The point of controversy in the wake of the NCAA selection show should be how miserably the committee failed to balance the four regions.

College administrators holed up in Indianapolis to draft our blueprint for March Madness, the 65-team bracket. After seeing their plan, it's fair to wonder if they watched Matlock marathons all weekend instead of conference tournaments.

Their flaws are bad news for Kansas and Kentucky, the nation's indisputable top two teams. The beneficiaries: Everybody in the South region.

Duke is the No. 3 team in the country, according to the committee. Top seed in the South.

So why did the Blue Devils get a sweeter draw than Kansas and Kentucky?

Why did they get matched against the weakest No. 2 seed in the bracket (Villanova), the weakest No. 3 (Baylor), a weak No. 5 (Texas A&M) and a huge question mark in fourth-seeded Purdue, which recently lost star Robbie Hummel to injury?

Kansas, meanwhile, faces a gauntlet. Maryland or Michigan State in the Sweet 16. Ohio State or Georgetown in the regional final. Yikes.

The Buckeyes would clearly be a top seed had they not lost player of the year favorite Evan Turner for three weeks. Georgetown is a matchup nightmare.

And facing Tom Izzo in the NCAA tournament is like detasseling corn in a muddy field. Better get a good night's sleep.

Kentucky's potential path? Not much easier. Wisconsin or Temple in round three, then West Virginia in the regional final.

It's a tough job, setting this bracket. And rating teams is splitting hairs. But some of these decisions prompt objections.

Dan Guerrero, chairman of the committee, said repeatedly Sunday night that his colleagues considered for No. 1 seeds five teams: Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse and West Virginia. Only West Virginia got placed on the No. 2 line.

So why did the Mountaineers fall to No. 7 in the overall pecking order, opposite powerhouse Kentucky in the East?

Why did they drop below Kansas State and Villanova, which lost its first game in the Big East tournament and dropped five of its last seven games overall?

West Virginia won the Big East tournament, beat Villanova the last week of the season and edged 'Nova by every conceivable measure.

Sounds like a small nit to pick, but the tournament is all about matchups — you've heard that 1,000 times. And the last thing you want if you're Kansas or Kentucky is to run into a team that got a raw deal.

The Jayhawks and Wildcats still will be the favorites to make it to April 5, the national title game. But their chances got a little worse Sunday.

• First-round upset watch? Start with the shaky crop of No. 4 seeds. Vanderbilt, Purdue, Maryland and Wisconsin. I expect at least one to fall, probably either Vanderbilt (to Murray State) or Purdue (to Siena).

• Yes, the Texas Longhorns were No. 1 in the country in January. Yes, they have top-flight talent all over the floor.

But please resist the urge to scribble Texas past the second round. Since Jan. 16, the Longhorns won just two games against foes with winning conference records, both against Oklahoma State. They're a wreck and they're not magically going to flip a switch and beat Kentucky.

• Duke got a charitable draw; we established that. But so did Syracuse, the fourth-ranked No. 1 seed.

In fact, the Orange's biggest test may come in round two against eight-seeded Gonzaga. Would you believe the Zags, the famous tournament Cinderella, haven't won a game as an underdog since 2001?

• Underseeded: Start with Temple, No. 5 seed in the East. Also, Tennessee, which beat Kansas and Kentucky, is a No. 6.

• Overseeded: Wake Forest perhaps should've been in the NIT — certainly not a No. 9 seed. And Butler, a No. 5 in the West, had only two impressive wins. It beat Ohio State (without Turner) and Xavier (on a controversial call).

• Who would've ever thought we'd see a day when a 23-win team with a 10-6 conference record in the venerable ACC gets left out of the NCAAs? And the committee got it right. Virginia Tech beat nobody in the top 30 all season.

• Best quote from the postmortem goes to ESPN's Jay Bilas: “This is the weakest at-large field in the history of the 65-team tournament. If you can't make it in this year, you probably can't really play.”

Bilas should've gone further. Anyone who thinks Kansas deserves a tougher draw than Duke probably doesn't know basketball.

Contact the writer:

649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com

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