Emporia State men need help to keep NCAA Tourney hopes alive
By Jesse Newell
Saturday, March 3, 2007
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — So what exactly are the Emporia State men’s basketball team’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament?
The answer is probably not as good as it should be.
ESU, which finished with a 16-7 Division-II record (15-7 in region) after Thursday’s loss to Truman in the MIAA Tournament, has the fifth-fewest losses in the South Central Region.
Though that alone would seem to put the Hornets in the top five of the regional rankings, the truth of the matter is that ESU — ranked No. 7 in the regional rankings — might still find itself on the outside looking in when the NCAA Tournament pairings are announced Sunday.
The top eight teams from the region will make the NCAA Tournament after three automatic berths are given to the MIAA, Lone Star and Heartland conferences.
“In the regional rankings, we never got any respect for some reason,” ESU coach David Moe said. “We’re ranked behind lots of guys.”
Those “guys” include West Texas A&M (13-9 in region) and even more surprisingly Tarleton State (11-10 in region).
The latest twist came on Thursday, when the regional committee sent out a correction to its nationally released rankings. In the new rankings, only one change was made: ESU, which was ranked sixth in the region, was dropped to seventh, while Tarleton State moved from seventh to sixth.
Northwest Missouri State coach Steve Tappmeyer, who is on the six-person regional committee, could not comment on the group’s discussions because of NCAA rules.
He did, however, confirm that the regional committee meets every week and sends a recommended ranking to the national committee.
It’s possible, then, that the regional committee might have sent a ranking that was overruled by the national committee.
Another interesting note is that the chairman of the South Central committee — the one who is on the national committee — happens to be Lonn Reisman, the athletic director at Tarleton State.
He’s also the school’s men’s basketball coach.
NCAA rules prohibit him from taking part in the discussion about his team’s ranking.
ESU and Tarleton State have each lost their last three games. The Texans have lost four of their last five, with the last being a 90-67 loss to Central Oklahoma — a team the Hornets beat earlier this season.
“We didn’t get it done (late), and nobody feels worse about it than I do,” Moe said. “But there’s a lot of teams that didn’t get it done with us.”
The Lone Star Conference has seven of the 10 teams ranked in the South Central Regional Rankings despite posting a 7-12 record against the MIAA.