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Sunday March 15th
Sunday March 15th
Published by Swampy Meadows
03-15-2015
Sunday March 15th

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- Well, so much for "Stress-Free Selection Sunday" eh kids?

Scott Barnes and his merry band of NCAA Eye Testers sure took care of that, didn't they? I swear when NC State popped up I figured "that's who UD is gonna play." Nope.

A "First Four" Game with Boise State.

Really?

I read all five installments of Chris' excellent piece on the media mock selection process and not once did "eye test" factor into anything and yet, UCLA, Indiana, NC State, Texas and several others got in, thanks to the NCAA Optometrists.

Here is about all we can say about this situation:

-- Boise State got hosed too. Imagine having to come and play UD, at UD Arena. They are not gonna be happy campers.

-- USA Today has UD as one of its five most underseeded teams in the NCAA Dance:

http://q.usatoday.com/2015/03/15/nca...rseeded-teams/

-- This piece from CBS Sports says it all:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...-nearly-not-in

-- Matt Norlander at CBS Sports expounds further:

What happened to Dayton was wrong and ill-conceived

The Flyers somehow barely sneak into the field and are placed as an 11 seed in the First Four. What? This was the third-best team in the A-10, at worst, and was a few seconds away from winning the automatic bid in the conference.

Yet, check the official 1-68 seed list. And Dayton's the final at-large team listed. If UConn won, Dayton would've been in the NIT.

What? No.

A top-40 KenPom team and a group that won 25 games is the last one in? I know Dayton didn't have the strongest resume, but I thought the Flyers would have slid right into the 8/9 game. It's maddening. I did think the seeding and inclusion here would really throw some things out of whack, but Dayton was not on my list of potential what-in-the-world seeding decisions.

Now the Flyers get to play Boise State, a sneaky good team with deep-shooting ability. In a weird way, the committee goofed on this because they punish Dayton by mis-seeding them, and punish Boise with giving the Broncos essentially a road game. (The First Four is held at Dayton's home arena.)


-- Look at the bright side: UD plays at home. If they beat Boise State, Marty the bus driver from Buffalo ferries Archie and crew 90 miles to Columbus to face LaDontae "Buckets" Henton and the PC Friars. Win that and then it's the winner of Oklahoma/Albany.

They can do this!

-- Question: Where would UD have been seeded had they beaten VCU for the A-10 crown?

-- If you need to get pumped up for UD's game on Wednesday night, just watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...NA&app=desktop

Beat Boise State!

Sunday Morning

Welcome to "Stress-Free Selection Sunday" here in Flyerland! Win or lose this afternoon, UD will be making back-to-back appearances in the Big Dance for just the fifth time in the U's history. It is soooo nice to have the remaining questions about the Flyers' fate be "Where?" and "When?" as opposed to "If?" and "Why not?"

Sometimes in the course of being a member of the Flyer Faithful you just have to show a little faith. As you can see by the dateline from yesterday's edition of "FTS" I was in Erie, PA over the weekend, which was a good thing because my BIL and SIL get CBS Sports Network at their place and we don't here in Michigan. We got to see the start of the game -- late as it was -- but had dinner plans and headed out early in the 2nd half with the score tied. I left feeling that the "Magnificent Seven" had this -- they would find the intestinal fortitude to defeat the Whining Hurleys, somehow, someway. Went to a nice place called The Public House and had my iPhone set to ESPN Game Tracker and smiled as it refreshed to show UD up by five. Got a little concerned when the lead shrank to two with 22 ticks left on the timer, because I didn't know the circumstances -- who had the ball, etc. Had a big smile on my face as I let my UD alum wife and SIL know that our alma mater had been victorious. That fact required another shift in plans, as we hit the road at 8:00 AM and made it back by noon for the 1:00 PM tip on "The Big CBS" as I called it.

ICYMI like I did, here are highlights from the URI victory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8x...ature=youtu.be

David Jablonski with the game recap from The DDN:

http://daytonflyers.blog.daytondaily...ode-island-52/

Looks like Jordan took over at the end and did what your senior co-captain is supposed to do in a big game, while Dyshawn Pierre finally shook off the doldrums and stepped up when KP went out with four fouls.

I haven't been checking Dance Card, but those who have on the UD Pride MB say those knuckleheads in NC still have UD on the outside looking in. Are they waiting until UD wins the A-10 crown to state the obvious or what exactly is their problem?

Who cares?

Like I said:

It's Stress-Free Selection Sunday!

(More later)

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com
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