The Southeastern Conference received 10 bids to the NCAA Tournament, but two of the biggest snubs also were teams from the league.
Oklahoma and Auburn were on the outside of the 68-team field when SMU of the Atlantic Coast Conference landed the final spot.
The Sooners (19-15) were the first team omitted, followed by Auburn (17-16). Ironically, the two schools tied for 11th place in the SEC in the regular season with 7-11 records.
Also among the first four out were San Diego State (22-11) of the Mountain West and Indiana (18-14) of the Big Ten.
Joining SMU as No. 11 seeds and among the last teams in the field were North Carolina State (ACC), Texas (SEC) and Miami (Ohio) of the Mid-American Conference.
Selection committee chairman Keith Gill said the committee got the right teams in the field. The Sun Belt Conference commissioner said it’s not easy when it is narrowed down to a few teams for one spot.
“When you try to compare those teams and get to that last team in the field, and this year that was SMU, that conversation between them and those teams outside the tournament is really challenging. All those teams had good years and have good things on their resume, and they also had some things that probably weren’t as good.
“When you try to compare those things and get to the last team in the tournament, it is tense and you just try to make sure you are making the best decision.”
Oklahoma got into the mix with a strong finish. The Sooners were just 11-12 after losing to Kentucky on Feb. 4 before winning eight of their final 11 games.
Oklahoma had a six-game winning streak during the stretch but none were against a ranked team. The Sooners went 1-1 in the SEC tourney, getting eliminated by Arkansas in the quarterfinals.
Auburn was 14-7 in late January before collapsing down the stretch. The Tigers went 3-9 the rest of the way, including a 0-4 mark against ranked teams.
Former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl — whose son Steven now coaches the team — said the Tigers should have been in due to their tough schedule.
Pearl, serving as a CBS studio analyst, said Oklahoma or Auburn should have been in the tournament instead of SMU.
“You have to win your way in or lose your way out,” Bruce Pearl said. “For me, you always say ‘You’re going to put one in, who you gonna take out?’ For me, SMU with a 191 out-of-conference strength of schedule. I don’t know that they should have been rewarded.”
San Diego State, the 2023 NCAA Tournament runner-up, was bypassed as the Mountain West got just one team (Utah State) in the field for the first time since 2017.
The Aztecs had participated in the last five NCAA Tournaments.
“I’m disappointed for our players and our great fans that we weren’t selected to compete in this year’s NCAA Tournament,” San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said in a statement. “There are only 68 spots available and, unfortunately, we didn’t get one of them.
“We fought hard all year and in a league that featured seven teams that won at least 20 games, we completed the regular season alone in second place and reached the championship game of our conference tournament. All those are accomplishments we can be proud of, but in the committee’s eyes it just wasn’t enough to be included in the field. We respect the work they do.”
Dutcher said his team will call it a season and won’t play in any postseason tournaments.
Indiana also reportedly won’t play in a postseason season tourney after missing out on the NCAA field.
The Hoosiers finished 10th in the Big Ten (9-11 conference record) in Darian DeVries’ first season as a coach. But a late-season 1-6 nosedive that included a loss to Northwestern in its first Big Ten tourney game helped sink Indiana.
Other teams that still had hopes in the middle of last week were Stanford (20-12) of the ACC, New Mexico (23-10) of the Mountain West and Cincinnati (18-15) of the Big 12.
–Field Level Media
