Sun Devils not wild about missing a bid

By Robyn Norwood

March 17, 2008 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The March Madness started early, with Georgia’s dizzying scramble into the NCAA tournament by winning three games in 30 hours after a tornado tore a hole in the Georgia Dome roof.

It won’t end until April 7, when a team other than Florida will cut down the nets after the NCAA championship game for the first time in three years: Two-time champion Florida and Ohio State, the teams that played for the title last year, didn’t even make the field of 65.

North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas earned the No. 1 seedings, and there was little controversy there.

The questions were on the other end of the bracket, with the high beams focused on the decision to leave out Arizona State, a team that had beaten Xavier and Stanford and swept rival Arizona, which made it into the field for the 24th consecutive season.

A look at some of the intrigue of the NCAA field announced Sunday:

Sun Devils vs. Wildcats, the rivalry grows

Arizona State beat Arizona twice, although the Wildcats’ Jerryd Bayless did not play in one game and Nic Wise sat out the other.

Arizona State went 19-12, 9-9 in the Pacific 10. Arizona went 19-14 and 8-10.

Arizona State went 5-7 down the stretch. Arizona went 4-8.

Arizona is in the NCAA tournament.

Arizona State is not.

The culprit: That tricky thing called the RPI. Arizona was No. 37. Arizona State was No. 83.

The factor that did in Arizona State -- leaving the Pac-10 Conference with six teams in the field instead of a league-record seven -- was the one many expected would, a nonconference schedule that ranked in the vicinity of No. 300.

“The reality check is that their strength of schedule was extremely high,” said Tom O’Connor, the George Mason athletic director who chaired the committee.

“If Arizona State would have been selected for the tournament, they would have had the highest RPI ever to go into the NCAA tournament as an at-large selection.”

Arizona State Coach Herb Sendek knew enough to be anxious.

“We’re very hurt,” Sendek said. “We have to mourn our way through it. . . . We’re going to play in the NIT, but it’s a very difficult pill to swallow.”

Sendek’s defense of the schedule: He had a young team that won only eight games last year, and when he scheduled the Maui Invitational, he thought he’d get a boost with such teams as Duke and Marquette in the field. Instead, ASU played Illinois and Louisiana State teams that went on to subpar seasons, and it wasn’t enough to make up for such teams on the schedule as Coppin State.

Coppin State, by the way, lost to Arizona State, 60-43, but earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning its conference tournament despite losing 20 games.

Most relieved interim coach

Arizona hasn’t missed the NCAA tournament since 1984.

“I’ll be honest with you,” said Kevin O’Neill, who has filled in for Lute Olson during his leave of absence this season. “When our name came up today, it was one of the most exciting times I’ve had in my basketball career.”

You don’t just have to play them, you have to beat them

Virginia Tech Coach Seth Greenberg said after playing North Carolina to a close loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals the committee would have to be “certifiably insane” to leave the Hokies out.

It left them out.

The problem: Virginia Tech’s best victory was over Miami.

“I can tell you the one statistic that came out as we were building the field, it became apparent that they had one win against the field as a whole,” O’Connor said. “They had four losses against teams that were below 100. . . . And they had no wins in the top 50 until they got to the ACC tournament and beat Miami.”

Catch them while you can

The absolute must-see game of the first-round is USC against Kansas State on Thursday in Omaha.

Talk about new meaning to the term one-and-done.

O.J. Mayo and national player-of-the-year contender Michael Beasley are both expected to turn pro after one season.

One of them figures to be turning pro after one NCAA tournament game.

Here’s to the WCC

The West Coast Conference -- lately better known as the We Crush Coaches conference after so many coaching changes that Santa Clara’s Kerry Keating is fourth in seniority after 11 months -- earned a record three bids when Gonzaga and St. Mary’s received at-large berths after San Diego won the conference tournament.

What does it mean financially for the league of small religious schools?

“A bunch of money,” Commissioner Mike Gilleran said. “How’s that for sophisticated financial analysis?”

His starting estimate: about $1.5 million to be shared by the eight conference schools over six years.

Conference scorecard

The Big East, a 16-team league that was fifth in the RPI rankings, received eight berths.

The Atlantic Coast Conference, the highest-rated league, received four.

The Pac-10, the No. 2 league, earned six in UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, USC, Oregon and Arizona.

The committee members aren’t kidding when they say they don’t make decisions based on league affiliation.

The final word

After all the bubble debate, here is a list of some teams whose resumes were left on the committee-room floor after failing to make the field: Arizona State, Dayton, Illinois State, Mississippi, Ohio State, Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Tech.

And these were some of the last ones in: Kentucky, South Alabama, St. Joseph’s, Villanova, Kansas State and Baylor.

They’re in. Now they’ve got to win.

robyn.norwood@latimes.com

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Tournament facts

2008 CONFERENCES

Big East: 8

Pac-10: 6

Big 12: 6

SEC: 6

Big Ten: 4

ACC: 4