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Morris: USC's bubble bursts, leaving path to NIT
Mississippi State defender Phil Turner, right, wraps up South Carolina's Dominique Archie during their game Friday.
Mike Carlson/AP
Posted on 03.14.09
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survey:
TAMPA, Fla. | SOUTH CAROLINA’S DREAMS of playing on college basketball’s biggest stage were likely dashed Friday afternoon. In the vernacular of the tournament, USC went from being on the bubble to having its bubble burst in the 82-68 loss to Mississippi State.
Now, instead of talking about possible seeding in the NCAA tournament, USC must consider options for playing host to a National Invitation Tournament game at Colonial Life Arena.
Remove your garnet-colored glasses for a moment and take a look at reality. When USC’s resume is pushed before the NCAA tournament selection committee today and Sunday it will show a team that might not have a win against a tournament team. It will show a team that faded down the stretch. It will show a team that finished tied for third in a league considered no better than the Mountain West.
And here is the really sad part, folks: USC has no one else to blame for its fate than itself. So, come Sunday, don’t go pointing fingers at the selection committee, and discard all conspiracy theories about all those NCAA folks having it in for USC.
After having bragged all season about taking care of business, USC failed to do just that in the final week of the regular season and in the SEC tournament.
Of course, coach Darrin Horn and his players are going to put the best spin possible on the situation. They should. But there is no masking the fact that USC had a chance to win the SEC East outright and dropped a 16-point decision to Tennessee at home, then had a chance to enhance its NCAA tournament standing and fell by 14 points to Mississippi State.
“I’ve been saying for a long time I don’t see how you don’t take one of the top three or four teams from the SEC in the NCAA tournament when you go back and look at our overall season and being divisional co-champs in the East,” Horn said minutes after USC’s late-game collapse.
The game’s final eight minutes were representative of how USC closed its season. When the game was on the line, USC fell apart. The game was tied at 55 with eight minutes remaining. The rest of the way, its terrific backcourt duo of Devan Downey and Zam Fredrick did not score. The team made four of its final 21 shots, including one of 12 from 3-point land.
“It’s frustrating. We feel we should have won the game,” Fredrick said, speaking softly in a USC locker room that resembled a mausoleum. “We just didn’t do enough to win. This was somebody else (Mississippi State) we could have built our resume a little more, but, unfortunately, we didn’t, and we have to wait until Sunday.”
Had USC defeated Tennessee in the late-season showdown for the SEC title, and had it defeated Mississippi State and advanced to the semifinals of the league tournament, the school was prepared for a Sunday selection show gathering with TV cameras there to record the excitement.
Now, the team will meet by itself, fully aware that the 65-team field will be announced and USC’s name likely will not be called. This despite having won 21 of 30 games and with it the hearts of USC fans by virtue of hard-nosed play throughout the season.
As good a story as USC became during Horn’s first season, there is no such thing as tugging at the heartstrings of the NCAA tournament committee. That group only sees the hard facts, and those are long on hopes and short on substance for USC.
USC should hope the committee looks kindly at its 10-7 record against SEC competition, including two wins against Kentucky and another against Florida. It should hope the committee strongly considers an early season win at Baylor, which was of some significance at the time.
More likely, the NCAA is going to look at USC’s dearth of quality wins. Unless Florida or Auburn plays its way into the NCAA tournament, the Gamecocks will be void of wins against tournament teams. Not one.
While the tournament selection committee says it does not consider how many teams are plucked from any conference, the SEC cannot be confident of getting more than three bids, the same three that are expected to go to the Mountain West.
LSU and Tennessee are locks from the SEC. Florida, Auburn, Mississippi State and USC are in contention for the final spot, and you could certainly make a case that USC falls last on that list.
So, go ahead and pull for the underdogs across the country to lose in conference tournament play the remainder of the weekend. Go ahead and pull for LSU and Tennessee to reach the SEC tournament final. Go ahead and cross your fingers that all “on the bubble teams” fall out of the picture.
But do not be disappointed when USC fails to make the tournament. It has been a wildly successful run for the Gamecocks, and no shame should be attached to an NIT bid. And if you insist on placing blame for where USC lands, then point to the team itself. It had numerous chances to play itself into the NCAA tournament, but failed to do so down the stretch.
Sad, but true.
Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM
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