Lunardi: Texas and UNC? The committee’s huge error, plus three

• Joe LunardiMar 16, 2025, 11:52 PM ET Close Citizen college basketball bracketologist for ESPN

• Factor to SportsCenter, ESPN Insider
• Released first public bracket in 1995

The yearly handwringing over the work of the NCAA men’s basketball selection committee has begun despite truly constant selections in the internet era.This year

, though: I am stumped.What coaches,

administrators and, yes, bracketologists try to find many from the committee is consistency. And a minimum of one of this year’s selections is very inconsistent.You wish to include

Texas and its 7 Quad 1 wins? I can absolutely live with that regardless of the 15 losses, the 6-12 league record and the No. 287 nonconference schedule.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated However then you merely can

not consist of North Carolina as well.

The Tar Heels are the opposite of the Longhorns. The No. 5 nonconference schedule produced precisely one Quad 1 win in a tremendous 13 attempts. That is disqualifying to me in an age that has properly prioritized winning the highest-level games.I suspect we’ll hear a lot about the two groups ‘combined records in Quad 1 and Quad 2,

which are undoubtedly comparable. But that appears a little too much like a convenient response searching for what is ultimately the wrong question.Yes, North Carolina and Texas each have 10 combined Q1/Q2 wins. Was that actually what got them in over the likes of West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio State and Boise State? West Virginia likewise had 10 combined Q1/Q2 wins, Indiana and Ohio State both had 9 and Boise had 8. Inadequate of a difference from my seat.The concern should constantly be: What message is being sent out to schools for future tournaments? Does it matter if a team equals the record of most losses for an at-large team, as

long as it wins huge games(Texas )? Or do teams not even need to worry about winning games if the schedule is hard enough (UNC )? 2025 guys’s NCAA tournament guide – Medcalf: First look at the Field of 68
– Lipscomb: Bracket facts
– Borzello: Immediate bracket
– Lunardi: Selection committee reactions

More from males’s college basketball

I’m not crazy about rewarding either path, but I’m horrified at rewarding both. I also can’t envision it was deliberate– neither the procedure nor the people in the room have to do with anything besides trying to get it right. And if the job remains getting it right, this committee did not. It’s a combined message of the worst kind. That winning doesn’t matter, other than when it does– type of like telling yourself not to consume while reaching for another beer.For the record

, I don’t purchase the conspiracy theories, or the side-eye being given to committee chair and North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham. A supermajority of committee members made these choices, and nobody has more than one vote. I’m calling their logic, not their integrity, into question.I ‘d likewise like to think I have a respectable appreciation of the intricacies of this process. I often look back and state, “Hey, I get what they were believing on that one. Could have gone either way. “This committee might have gone in either case, too. North Carolina or Texas, but not both.As for the rest of the bracket, not excessive was a surprise after watching these groups all season. However a couple of things stuck out: West Virginia was robbed of an area. The Mountaineers beat Gonzaga and

• Arizona in Maui. They also beat Kansas and Iowa State on the way to a 10-10 surface in the Huge 12. That’s sufficient when compared with many other groups in this field.Louisville as an 8-seed? Again, inconsistency from the committee rears its head. The Cardinals had a combined 15

• Q1/Q2 wins and went 18-2 in the ACC. If North Carolina had done that, the Tar Heels might have been a 1-seed (wink, wink ). The leading eight groups– Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan State, St. John’s– are as strong as any group

• of 1 -and 2-seeds I can keep in mind. Jointly, this leading 8 has won 148 Q1/Q2 games. All might have been standalone 1-seeds in other seasons.Let the insanity start!