GARY WALTERS, TOURN SELECTION COMMITTEE CHAIR, PRINCETON ATHLETIC DIR.
Every year we look at selecting teams and start with a clean slate. Our job is to recognize once conference play is over every team becomes an independent. Our job is to compare and contrast all of the teams regardless of conference affiliation. We adhere to that principal. Some years you have the mid-majors that end up with more teams in the tournament. Some years they have fewer teams in the tournament. Frankly, it wasn't until the end of selection that we asked the question, 'How did this all shake out?' It was the last question I know that I asked and we ended up with six.
BUBBLE SITUATION
By far the toughest thing was selecting the last three our four at-large teams. We spent a considerable amount of time over the course of almost two or three days discussing those at-large teams and it wasn't easy. We had an unbelievably rigorous and robust debate. That was really where the focus was and where the difficulty was because of the number of teams with very good records.
UNBALANCED SCHEDULES -- TEXAS TECH AND K-STATE -- DECIDING FACTOR WITH THOSE TWO TEAMS
Clearly, unbalanced schedules did come into play. We talked about it earlier and more and more leagues have unbalanced schedules, which clearly makes our job more difficult. We were impressed by the fact that Texas Tech had beaten Texas A&M twice and beat Kansas and they had a couple nice wins outside of the league and were playing in the South division of the Big 12, which was viewed as the tougher division, and also beat Kansas State earlier in the season in head-to-head. As it turns out they ended up getting seated because they were in the tougher division and had to play a game one game before they had to play Kansas State in the tournament, so the general feeling was that when you looked at it, it was a very, very close call but we really felt Texas Tech merited inclusion.
Friend typed it up for me.
