No conspiracies, folks, the committee went right by the Pairwise, meaning MSU was the first team out. Six WCHA teams are in, but the fourth-place team will be at home.
What would have gotten MSU in? Havard winning Saturday? Northern Michigan losing Saturdayd? A double-overtime win over Minnesota? A season-ending sweep of Michigan Tech? A win or two over Nebraska-Omaha?
"I don't look back," coach Troy Jutting said shortly after the selection show ended. "We had a lot of big wins, too. It's unfortunate. I thought the kids had a great season. They accomplished a lot. Unfortunately, we fell just a little bit short of where we wanted to be."
On Sunday's selection show, they called it a "disappointment for Minnesota State," although they didn't explain the Pairwise very well for the viewers.
Here are the tournament matchups ...
MIDWEST (Madison, Wis.)
1-North Dakota vs. 4-Princeton
2-Denver vs. 3-Wisconsin
WEST (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
2-Colorado College vs. 3-Michigan State
1-New Hampshire vs. 4-Notre Dame
EAST (Albany, N.Y.)
1-Michigan vs. 4-Niagara
2-St. Cloud State vs. 3-Clarkson
NORTHEAST (Worcester, Mass.)
1-Miami vs. 4-Air Force
2-Boston College vs. 3-Minnesota
More later, as well as in Monday's Free Press.
6 comments:
I understand the need to follow the pairwise. But if one were to compare MSU with Wisconsin, it's blatantly obvious who the superior team is: MSU finished with a better overall record, a better conference record and a better head-to-head record. We finished higher in the national rankings, yet somehow fell short in the pairwise. All I can say is, the rest of college hockey better watch out, come next year. The Mavs will be a force to be reckoned with. GO MAVS!
I'd have to agree with Sam. The Pairwise seems to fall in line with the BCS: it works most of the time, but sometimes it just falls a bit short.
By adding a human element to the selection process, it would seem that the Mavs are a better choice than Wisconsin for all the reasons pointed out by Sam.
The NCAA, however, is loving the pick of Wisconsin over MSU. (I love to hate 'Sconny) The Badgers are playing in Madison, they'll bring tons of fans, and they're much more of a national draw than the Mavs. I'd hate to be one of those teams who have earned a high seed (NoDak, Denver, etc) who have to travel to Madison and basically play a road game.
There are certainly some flaws that deserve a little discussion in the Pairwise, especially when it looked like the key factor in a Notre Dame-MSU tiebreaker was a throw-away series with UNO!
Pat Ruesse of the Mpls Star Trib said this morning on KSTP radio that the only way Wisconsin is better than Minn State this year is that they will have 15,000 vs. 2,000 fans at the games. It's all about the money. I have to agree with him. I saw the Mavericks play Wis earlier this year and the Mavs are much better.
I honestly think the Badgers' draw is a coincidence. The Pairwise and the tiebreakers associated with it indicate that Wisconsin beats out MSU in tiebreakers.
You can't lose two games to UNO and be mad about this happening. The Mavericks need to win those games and all of the other games we are pretty much 'expected' to win. That seems to be a trademark of Jutting's teams - the guys get up for most of the big games and don't for the others. That's something that needs to change.
Hey mavfan before this year we beat UNO for 4 straight years so how is that a trademark of Jutting?
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