Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140122
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: SPORTS EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was the first time since the field was expanded to 64 teams that an ACC club with a .500 conference record has been left at home and the first time that as few as four ACC teams have gotten in a 64-team field.
``I don't know how the rest of the conference sees it,'' said Florida State coach Pat Kennedy, whose 12-14 Seminoles were not a candidate for postseason play. ``Maybe they saw it coming. Myself, I was rather shocked. It's a terrible slap in the face.
``No other league got the seeds we got - a one, two, three and four. Those are eight pretty tough games before you even get to the NCAA Tournament. I would certainly hope it's something we would react to as a league.''
Gene Corrigan, the ACC commissioner, was in Kansas City, Mo., on Monday on a previously scheduled trip. The NCAA headquarters are in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan.
``We need to get a clear reading on why [Georgia Tech] was not included,'' ACC associate commissioner Tom Mickle said. ``For us to have the top conference in both the RPI and Sagarin rankings and then, for four other conferences to have more teams, it just doesn't make sense.
``We never even thought it would be close. I didn't really think there was any question. But, I kept watching the teams go up on the boards and it suddenly dawned on me, `[The Yellow Jackets are] not getting in.'''
Terry Holland, a member of the selection committee, said he does not think the Georgia Tech snub has implications for the future. But the Davidson athletic director and former Virginia coach understands the concern.
``I'm going to Baltimore [an East Regional site] this weekend,'' Holland said, ``and I'm sure the first thing [Wake Forest coach] Dave Odom is going to ask is, `What happened?'''
It appears that Georgia Tech wasn't even the 65th team, although Holland was unwilling to discuss individual cases in much detail. Virginia Tech (20-10) may have come closer to getting in the field than the Yellow Jackets (18-12).
``They were there late,'' Holland said of the Hokies. ``Essentially, they were one win away, and I think [Tech coach] Bill Foster knew it.
``I think their conference record [6-6] hurt them more than anything else, especially when some of the other teams, like Louisville and Southern Mississippi, started winning in the tournament.''
In the same conversation, Holland said the committee is instructed not to look at the selections from a conference standpoint.
``It seems like the parameters have changed in one respect,'' said Holland, in his second year on the committee. ``The lower end seems to be inching up to 17, 18 or 19 wins, but you have to be careful because of the number of games some teams play compared to what other teams play.
``You look at the teams that made it with less than 20 wins, and almost every one of them played 30. To be honest with you, I've had a tendency to pay more attention to the win side than the losses.''
Holland was the closest thing to an ACC connection on the committee. Duke athletic director Tom Butters went off the committee this year after three years as chairman.
Some eyebrows were raised when Minnesota, represented on the committee by athletic director McKinley Boston, got a bid after being listed 67th - 31 places behind Virginia Tech and 15 lower than Georgia Tech - in the last RPI rankings.
At least Manhattan, perhaps the biggest surprise among those teams receiving at-large bids, was ranked 50th in the RPI.
``I've been on both sides of the spectrum,'' said Kennedy, for six years the head coach at Iona, which plays against Manhattan in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. ``I can tell you, there are teams that got at-large bids that would not have Georgia Tech's record if they played Georgia Tech's schedule.
``In fact, I would think they would lose some of those games by a lot of points.''
by CNB