Selection Sunday: Temple Left Out Of NCAA's Big Dance
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — Fran Dunphy bit his lower lip, almost as if the Temple coach was girding himself for what might spill out when the kleig lights, cameras and the myriad media descended on him Sunday at Temple's Pearson Hall, minutes after finding out his Owls were rejected by the NCAA Tournament selection committee after a 23-10 season in which they beat Kansas and Cincinnati.
Each year, there are a few teams that have valid arguments why they were excluded from the "Big Dance," and this year, Temple is one of them. The Owls were the last team to go, booted by Wyoming when it won the Mountain West Conference championship. Because they were one of the first four teams left out, they automatically earn a top seed in the NIT (this is the first year this rule applies).
"We would have loved to have been in the tournament, and what I saw was that we were the second-best RPI that wasn't included," Dunphy said. "It would have been nice to be in there, but the committee has a job to do and they're given that charge we have to live with it. Could we have done something else? As you look at it, we were probably one win short of being in. If we could have beaten SMU any one of the three times, could we have been in? Probably. Now, we think we'll be in the NIT and see what we can do in that tournament.
"We talk about at practice just about every day and before games take no possession off. It's the fragile nsture of winning and losing college basketball games. It's of the minuscule variety. A made shot for them, and a missed shot for you, visa-versa, it's often what the game comes down to. The magic of the Final Four and March Madness is just that. It's college basketball and we got on the short end of that stick today."
Dunphy admitted he couldn't watch the selection shows. He was hoping to hear a roar from his team. Instead, he heard nothing. Dunphy admitted that if the Owls beat SMU in the American Athletic Conference semifinals, they would have made the tournament. The AAC only got two teams in, tournament champion SMU and Cincinnati.
Dunphy also said he wasn't about to be critical of the selection committee. But UCLA was 2-8 against tournament teams. Dunphy feels the AAC is a power conference.
"What good does that do you, you can only control what you can control," Dunphy said. "For us, if we could have had one more win, then we would been dancing. But we didn't get it. It's an agonizing situation to wonder what's going to happen all throughout this day. So now that the angst is over, the disappointment reigns. Hope is still out there that we can finish the season strong with another tournament that we'll be in. Overall, there is no control that you have. There is nothing you can do, there is nothing you can. I would go to the committee and and say, 'You should have included Temple.' Well, they didn't."
The Owls must now settle for a #1 seed in the NIT and will begin play Wednesday at home against Bucknell.
