UAB not bothered by NCAA criticism
BY JOHN ZENOR Associated Press
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
3/15/11 at 6:21 AM
Related Stories:
Ex-coaches give opinions
BOK practice
Starting point
This 16 not so sweet
First four or last four, UAB coach Mike Davis had no complaints Sunday night about the Blazers' placement in the NCAA tournament's new version of play-in games.
Speaking of complaints, there were plenty of those directed at the Blazers' inclusion.
"I don't listen to those guys," Davis said Sunday night. "They can put the numbers up that they want to put up, but you put every number up our numbers are better. Whatever personal issues they have, we're in and they can't vote us out. We're in."
But not quite all the way in, depending on perspective.
The NCAA selection committee picked UAB and Virginia Commonwealth to play in the first "First Four" games in the newly expanded 68-team tournament. The Blazers (22-8) and Clemson (21-11) meet Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio. VCU (23-11) faces Southern California (19-14) the following night in Dayton.
The winners of those and the two matchups of 16th-seeded teams play for the right to hop another plane and face a higher seed on Thursday or Friday.
As for VCU, the Rams didn't even gather to watch the selection show.
"The reason I didn't have the team watch together was because ... if it didn't go our way, I didn't want to put them through watching it together as a team and I didn't want it to be a big event that they remembered and dwelled on moving forward," coach Shaka Smart said. "I knew it could go either way."
Instead, the post-bracket analysis was the only part the Rams were better off skipping. Some pundits felt teams like Colorado, Alabama or Saint Mary's were more worthy. The UAB-Clemson winner moves on as the 12th seed in the East regional and plays No. 5 West Virginia in Tampa, Fla.
The Blazers' Davis, who led Indiana to the 2002 national championship game, was content with his team's destination.
"We deserve whatever they say we deserve," he said. "We're not complaining about anything. We're just happy to be in. We're just happy that they looked at Conference USA as being a good conference and the conference winner should be in."
