USF Sweats Out Selection Show Before Dancing To 1st NCAA Tournament Since 1998
by Justin Williams
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- Sunday was a day filled with anxiety for the San Francisco Dons men's basketball program. As the kids would say, the "Sunday Scaries" were real.
But after a longer-than-anticipated wait to hear their names called during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, the Dons are dancing for the first time since 1998.
Entering the weekend, most so-called "bracketologists" had USF in their projected field of 68. But seemingly every year, at least one deserving team gets left out of the tournament.
San Francisco was considered a "bubble" team, meaning they were one of around two dozen schools that didn't win their conference competing for the handful of at-large bids remaining.
Four regions make up the entirety of the NCAA Tournament. Of the first three that were revealed, none of them included the Dons. Finally, after 65 teams had already learned their destiny, San Francisco was announced as the 10 seed in the East Region.
"I felt a little nervous at the end there," USF head coach Todd Golden told KPIX 5 sports anchor Vern Glenn. "I felt really good this morning when I woke up. But as we made it to the fourth quadrant of the bracket, I thought, 'There's no way CBS sent cameras out here to not let us in.' But it was a very exciting moment to see our name come across."
With a No. 10 seed, USF earned its highest seeding in the tournament since the 1981-1982 season, when the Dons ultimately lost to Boston College as a No. 9 seed in the first round.
Outside of Gonzaga, BYU and Saint Mary's, San Francisco became the first school from the West Coast Conference (WCC) to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament since Pepperdine in 2002.
Additionally, the appearance marks the first time the Dons have earned an at-large bid since the WCC started giving its tournament champion the league's automatic bid in 1987.
"I want these guys to enjoy the moment," Golden said. "They've accomplished something that's incredibly difficult to do. At the same time, our goal is to win a couple games out there and see how long we can last in this tournament. And I think we have the type of kids that can do it."
San Francisco will play the No. 7 seed of the East Region, Murray State, on Thursday, March 17 at 6:40 p.m. on KPIX 5/CBS.