The NCAA Tournament field has been set, and there was certainly controversy surrounding certain selections. The mid-major teams that are usually snubbed in favor of big conference middlemen have gotten their chance to prove their worth.
The defending champion Kentucky Wildcats, who saw their best two players from last season's team (Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist) go back-to-back as the top two picks of the NBA Draft were crippled by an injury to freshman Nerlens Noel. Noel tore his anterior cruciate ligament in February and the already struggling Wildcats never recovered, eventually suffering an ugly 16-point loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament. Kentucky head coach John Calipari expressed his disappointment online, tweeting "I'm really disappointed we didn't make the NCAA tournament but we are going to use this time to make us better. We had our chances, but I'm not going to stop. It's a great lesson for the future of our program (and) a humbling experience for me as a coach."
In the ACC, the Virginia Cavaliers recorded wins over Duke, North Carolina, Wisconsin and North Carolina State, all of which are in the tournament, yet were left out because of several bad losses. The Cavaliers dropped three games to Colonial Athletic Conference squads (George Mason, Delaware, Old Dominion) and had several losses to the bottom teams in the ACC.
In Kentucky and Virginia's stead are less-decorated programs Middle Tennessee State and La Salle. Middle Tennessee State will play another mid-major, St. Mary's, in a play-in game as No. 11 seeds. The winner will take on No. 6 seed Memphis in the Midwest region. Middle Tennessee's selections raised eyebrows due to their best win coming against Mississippi, and its next best win being a victory over Cleveland State which is outside the Top 100 in RPI. Still, Middle Tennessee racked up 28 wins and was 19-1 inside their conference.
La Salle finished the year at 21-9 and boast wins over Villanova, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth (VCU). La Salle will battle Boise State in a play-in game of No. 13 seeds for the right to match up with No. 4 seed Kansas State.
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