Don Owen: For mid-majors, March Madness is insanity fueled by TV, conference tournaments

By Don Owen
NKyTribune reporter

March Madness is just that for one-bid leagues and conferences around the nation. But the craziness will never end as long as money and ESPN rule the hearts — and pockets — of college administrators at mid-major basketball programs.

It’s absolutely insane to determine an NCAA Tournament representative based on the outcome of a three-day postseason event that rewards lesser teams and penalizes the best option to carry a conference’s banner into the showcase called the Big Dance. Instead of giving the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament to its regular-season champion — something a team earns through the grind of a three-month schedule — mid-major leagues choose to deliver their ticket to the Big Dance to conference tournament winners.

Forget the work accomplished in December, January and February. Just get prepared for the first week of March, win three — or four — games, and get your dancing shoes on. Practice those scripted poses for the ESPN cameras. Just don’t let the cameras pan to the oodles of empty seats at the various neutral-site conference tournament venues. Big-time fun, and mid-major reality.

What’s the problem, then? No problem, if that’s what the one-bid leagues wish to do and are content to remain irrelevant on the national scene. If your best team isn’t playing in the NCAA Tournament, don’t bellyache about the 15 or 16 seed you receive in the first round and the inevitable loss — many of those by blowout margins — to a powerhouse 1 or 2 seed.

The best example of a regular-season champion penalized by the conference tournament craziness this season is Northern Kentucky University. And the best example of a lower seed benefitting from the insanity of a conference tournament last year is also that same NKU program, which watched as the top three seeds lost in the opening round and took full advantage to capture the 2017 Horizon League championship.

It works both ways at the mid-major level.

This past weekend at the Horizon League Tournament in Detroit, aptly named “Motor City Madness” for many reasons, regular-season champion NKU picked an inopportune time to have a bad night during an 89-80 loss to eighth-seeded Cleveland State. The Vikings entered Motor City Madness with a 9-22 record. On Monday night, they will play in the semifinals, just two wins from punching their ticket to the Big Dance.

Be assured that most potential No. 1 seeds around the country are doing a pirouette at the thought of meeting Cleveland State in the opener of the NCAA Tournament.

Before going further, let’s point out that NKU absolutely deserved to lose the game Saturday night. The Norse scored the game’s first 11 points, owned a 21-6 lead with 9:19 to go before halftime and then melted down defensively during the next 29 minutes. Cleveland State, in fact, torched the NKU defense for 61 points in the second half and displayed an unwavering toughness in the final three minutes — scoring 10 unanswered points after trailing 75-74 — to earn the victory. The Vikings made a plethora of clutch plays, drained every big shot and deserved to win the game.

The Vikings, however, do not deserve a trip to the NCAA Tournament, under any circumstances. Their play during the course of an entire season is the obvious indicator. A 22-loss team should not be anywhere near the NCAA Tournament, yet Cleveland State is still a possibility for the Big Dance. And there are a lot of potential dancing partners just wringing their hands hoping for an opportunity to have the honor of sharing the floor with the Vikings in the NCAA Tournament, namely Virginia, Villanova, Xavier, Duke, Kansas, etc.

NKU dropped to 22-9 and gets a consolation prize, the Horizon League’s automatic bid to the NIT. It’s not a terrible option, given the fact NKU is just in its second year of eligibility for such postseason tournaments. Pairings for the NIT will be announced March 11, and NKU will be one of the 32 teams participating.

But it sure isn’t as pleasant as being one of the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament field, something the Norse experienced a year ago.

After winning the Horizon League’s regular-season championship last week at IUPUI, NKU head coach John Brannen said something that eerily and unintentionally foreshadowed an early exit at Motor City Madness. “To win the regular-season title is the truest form of a championship because you have to go through an 18-game schedule,” he said. “This championship speaks of our players, their toughness and resiliency to go through the grind of that 18-game schedule in the league. It’s a great accomplishment, but we still have a lot work to do and more games to play.”

Brannen was absolutely correct. Posting a 15-3 record during the Horizon League’s 18-game schedule should have, by all rights, been the ticket to the Big Dance. Then again, Oakland won last year’s regular-season crown by virtue of a tiebreaker with Valparaiso and promptly exited the Horizon League Tournament with an opening-round loss to ninth-seeded Youngstown State. Second-seeded Valparaiso and third-seeded Green Bay also suffered opening-game knockouts last season. And fourth-seeded NKU ultimately benefitted, winning the Horizon League Tournament with victories against the 5, 9, and 10 seeds.

Sound familiar? If so, get your dancing shoes on, because March Madness has struck again. And the insanity is running rampant among mid-major leagues around the nation, with no cure in sight.

Contact Don Owen at don@nkytrib.com and follow him on Twitter at @dontribunesport