ST LOUIS – Today we announce this year’s selections for the Never Been Kissed conference. In order to be eligible for induction into the NBK, member schools have to meet the following criteria:
- Must field a Division I basketball team
- Must have never have made the Sweet Sixteen
This rules out Division III schools (sorry WashU) and online colleges such (apologies Strayer University), as well as notable and surprising Sweet Sixteen party crashers such as Arizona St (1995), Northern Iowa (2010), and Cleveland St (1986).
The Selection Committee consists of myself and my dog Boo. I handled most of the research and all of the typing; Boo took sniffing, barking and general jackassery. In considering this year’s membership, we were looking for basketball programs of some prominence or notoriety that have never pushed through to the second weekend. We considered (real) conference affiliation, history of tournament appearances, and trajectory. We groused and grumbled about the first round becoming the second round, and the play-in games becoming the first round. We paused for snacks.
There was much debate within the Committee as to what we would consider “never”. The tournament field first expanded to 16 teams in 1951. By 1975, it had grown to 32 teams so you had to at least win a game to achieve sweetness. We finally settled on 1985, when the tournament first expanded to 64 teams and the term Sweet Sixteen started to gain traction. So for purposes of the NBK, never means “since 1985”.
Why form the NBK? In college basketball discussions, the schools that have never made the Final Four — BYU, Missouri, Xavier — get all the ignominious glory. The NMFF are fairly well-known, often discussed and are annually revisited. But no one talks about these long-suffering schools, whose fans have experienced the “We made the tournament!” buzz but not the full sweetness of March Madness, and the glow of the second weekend. At least the NMFF are much-maligned. These schools aspire to be much-maligned.
Before we announce this year’s inductees, a reminder that we expect membership to turnover annually via both graduation (NBK school advances to the Sweet Sixteen) or relegation (they stink on ice). We will revisit the composition of the list annually; rankings will change throughout the year as we learn more. So if you do not see your school in this list, there is always next year. The Internet is here to field your complaint. Al Gore created it for that purpose.
Without Freddy Ado, here is the list (the “Sour Sixteen”?) and their pre-season NBK Ranking, based on the Selection Committee’s projected order of graduation. Final KenPom ranking from last year in parenthesis:
- SMU (30): The Mustangs have not made the tournament since 1993, but that seems likely to change this year. They lost in the finals of the NIT last year, and have a highly-touted recruiting class coming in despite Emmanuel Mudiay fleeing for greener pastures and higher-quality Chow Mein. Their actual conference (AAC) may even be more contrived and thrown together than this virtual conference (NBK). Impressive.
- Colorado (77): The Buffs have made the tournament three years straight, notching one win. They seem stuck in that 8-11 seed zone that is not conducive to medium-term advancement. Maybe they can figure out how to leverage Legal Weed to a greater home court advantage, because pace alone (#178 in Adjusted Tempo) is not doing it: UCLA & Arizona both won at the Coors last year.
- Nebraska (44): I like what Tim Miles has done upgrading the defense (#25 in AdjD) in his two years there, and he made a savvy hire in wooing Australian sensation Chris Harriman away from SLU. The Huskers pace this group with a spotless .000 winning percentage in the NCAA tournament: 0-7. B1G membership and a rising program should give them better chances to break through.
- Harvard (32): The Crimson have made the last three tourneys, and have won a game in each of the last two. They ran away with the Ivy last year, and may get enough national attention this year to upgrade their seed.
- Southern Miss (56): Winless in three trips to the tournament. Last appearance was in 2012. But they have improved their KenPom ranking in each of the last six seasons, and we like that.
- Georgia St (63): Solid year for the Panthers in the Sun Belt last year, riding a meticulous offense (#1 in Turnover prevention, #3 in Free Throw Pct) to a 25-9 finish. On the rise. Maybe instead of “defense wins championships” they should coin “offense wins pods”.
- Creighton (24): Omaha’s finest would likely have led these rankings last year, had they existed. The Blue Jays rode POY Doug McDermott to a third straight tournament berth, winning a game for the third straight year. They were then dismantled by Baylor and sold for parts. It will be interesting to see where Coach GMc can lead them since star DMc has moved on to the Chicago Bulls.
- Saint Louis (35): The Billikens also have won a game in each of the last three tournaments. Good for the coffers, but that CBS/Turner money may only serve as a down payment on their future. Five senior starters have moved on. SLU’s quest for the Sweet Sixteen was the inspiration behind this blog as well as the formation of the 16×18 Society.
- New Mexico (31): “Lobo Basketball: Torching Brackets Since 2010”. They will sell a lot of t-shirts with this slogan. Put a grimacing Steve Alford face on it. Gold. The Lobos have been to 4 of the last 5 NCAA tournaments, but lost their top three players from last year.
- Manhattan (60): The Jaspers have something brewing and gave Louisville a decent run in last year’s tournament. MAAC affiliation is likely to keep them in the bottom four seeds, thus the lower NBK rank.
- Murray State (115): Wouldn’t it be great if Murray stuck around for the second weekend? It would be like having your old uncle Murray over to watch the games and have a Schlitz. It is also fun to say Racers.
- Indiana St (108): The Sycamores have been to all the playoff tournaments (NCAA, NIT, CBI, CIT) recently. They are 1-7 in such tournaments since Larry Bird’s moustache went to Boston in 1979.
- Old Dominion (170): ODU is 3-8 in the tourney since 1985, so they too have had a decent number of chances. Should consider changing their name to Big Baby Jesus University.
- Fordham (204): The Rams have also improved their KenPom final ranking six straight years. This has only gotten them to #204, so it may be time for leaps & bounds rather than slow & steady if they wish to avoid relegation.
- Montana (233): The Grizzlies once made the Sweet Sixteen, but it was way back in 1975. They have attended three of the past five NCAA tournaments and were mauled in two of them (2012 lost 73-49 to Wisconsin; 2013 lost 81-34! to Syracuse). Perhaps tournament experience is not a valuable metric by itself. Their coach is Wayne Tinkle and I did not make that name up.
- Northwestern (131): If fellow B1G member Nebraska is trying to get off the schneid, we might say Northwestern is trapped under a steaming pile of schneid. The Wildcats have never even made the NCAA Tournament. Oh-fer forever. With a newish coach and a huge win at Wisconsin last year, perhaps they are on a path to break that dubious tradition. You could argue they should be rated higher in this list, given their decent KenPom ranking. But forever is a mightly long time, so for now they sit here: barely in the NBK, poised on the brink of relegation.
This is your Never Been Kissed Conference for 2014. Let us know if your favorite team did not make it.
In the future we will examine some of the key factors in getting to the Sweet Sixteen, and try to get a better sense of what these teams are missing — or may have finally found — relative to that pursuit.
