No matter what the NCAA does, no one will ever be happy. Every system is flawed. Whether it’s RPI, KPI, NET, KenPom, the AP Poll, or anything else. Fanbases will always be upset. The tournament committee switched to the NET Rankings, for a reason. And while it may have its issues it’s better than what was used before. It includes game location, strength of schedule, efficiency, and quality of wins/losses.
Syracuse is ranked so low in the NET because of its bad efficiency, bad games against good teams, and inability to blow out bad teams. The Orange rank 90th in offensive efficiency in KenPom and 75th in defensive efficiency. That is not a recipe for success. Even then, the Orange have won games, but you have to look deeper into those games. The argument that a win is a win and it doesn’t matter what the final score is just makes no sense in college basketball. Not every team is equal and a four-point win vs Colgate can’t be seen the same as four-point win vs NC State. The NET also rightfully doesn’t count the Chaminade game. No one should be rewarded for being a non-division one team.
In the NCAA tournament teams will play either great mid/low majors or good high major teams. Syracuse struggled mightily against squads like that this season. Yes, the Orange beat Louisville, Miami, NC State, Pitt and other irrelevant ACC teams but those don’t mean anything in terms of the tournament.
Against New Hampshire, Canisius, Colgate, Niagara and Cornell, the five games vs low majors, Syracuse won by an average of just 10 points. Tournament teams should be blowing out squads like that, and the NET does a good job of rewarding teams for not playing close games against lower-level squads. Isn’t that what should be important when looking at potential tournament teams? Elite teams should separate themselves from the rest and Syracuse didn’t do that. The programs that are less likely to get upset early on and dominate worse teams should be rewarded.
SU’s other vice this season is its bad track record against good teams. Against teams that bracketmatrix.com currently has in the field, the ‘Cuse’s average margin of loss is more than 20 points. Outside of the one magical win at home against UNC, the Orange have been consistently blown out by teams in the field.
So if the Orange struggle to beat the low majors, and can’t compete against the best of the best, why should they be in the tournament? Why should a team be rewarded for beating a bunch of bad-power conference teams? No matter what the NCAA does, no one will be happy. But to say that the NET Rankings make no sense just because it hurts Syracuse without actually looking into why the Orange are ranked so low is just disingenuous.
