College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein of CBS displayed some empathy in his reaction to thebad job conducted by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee on Sunday that resulted in WVU basketball missing the tournament field.
“If the criteria for the NCAA Tournament in terms of getting an at-large bid is to beat other NCAA Tournament teams if you are on the bubble, how in the world could North Carolina get an at-large bid over Indiana and over West Virginia," Rothstein asked.
"West Virginia won a game at Allen Fieldhouse. West Virginia beat Gonzaga on a neutral court, they beat Arizona on a neutral court, and it also beat Iowa State. North Carolina is in over [West Virginia and Indiana]."
The guys that cover the sport & watch every game of the season are calling out how corrupt this is and how bad a day this is for the sport.
— Ryan McIntyre (@Moneyline_Mac) March 17, 2025
Too bad we don’t have individuals on the committee that actually WATCH the games!
Well done @JonRothstein 🫡 pic.twitter.com/IIP4rONVjb
He was not the only expert on the sport in national media circles with commentary on the choice, either. CBS Bracketologist Jerry Palm was rather adamant in his assessment of the Selection Committee’s decision to put UNC into the tournament field.
“The committee missed on North Carolina," Palm said. "There’s just no case for them at all. In fact, I’ve been doing this a very long time and no team that I’ve ever dealt with has so conclusively proven that they’re not an NCAA Tournament team that still made the field."
"It’s not just the 1-12 record against Quad 1 teams, it’s that none of those Quad 2 teams that they’re giving them credit for are tournament teams either. Some of their Quad 1 losses are not to tournament teams.”
The reality is that no one saw this coming. Aside from the Selection Committee, college basketball experts and analysts believe that West Virginia deserved a spot in the NCAA Tournament field. They were snubbed. This is a gut-wrenching blow to a team comprised entirely of first-year players within the program under first-year head coach Darian DeVries.
You have to feel for Javon Small and his teammates who received the heartbreaking news on Sunday evening. Small, who has put together one of the best individual seasons in recent history for WVU, will now finish his career having never taken a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
While it stings and will continue to sting for some time, West Virginia over-achieved in season one under Darian DeVries, especially considering they were without Tucker DeVries from December 7th onward. These student-athletes have nothing to hang their heads about, they accomplished a lot this season and in nearly everyone’s book, deserved an NCAA Tournament bid.
Can we empathically say that the Selection Committee got it wrong?
Yes. When experts and insiders who know more about the game of college basketball are this adamant about the horrendous job of the Selection Committee, it is safe to say that they got it wrong. Jon Rothstein and Jerry Palm eat, sleep, and breathe college hoops, and if they feel that the West Virginia Mountaineers were snubbed, then so do we.