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BLACKSBURG, Va., March 16 — Deron Washington walked around the mall with his girlfriend Sunday, trying to escape the day’s tension. But it was hard. Fans flocked to him, most wishing him luck for Virginia Tech to make the NCAA tournament.
Finally, when 6 p.m. arrived, Washington huddled with teammates in a luxury suite overlooking Lane Stadium. The Hokies ate pizza together, watching team after team pop up on the television screen until 65 had been named. Virginia Tech was not one of the 65.
“The room just got silent,” Washington said. “They were shaken up a bit.”
Virginia Tech, which earned consideration for an at-large tournament berth by winning five of its final seven games, did not make the NCAA tournament bracket unveiled Sunday. Instead, the Hokies will play in the National Invitation Tournament as a top seed, with a first-round game Wednesday against Morgan State at Cassell Coliseum.
The Hokies, who finished No. 52 in the Ratings Percentage Index, became the first team from the ACC to win 10 conference games in the regular season and conference tournament combined and not make the NCAA tournament since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The Hokies also became only the third ACC team to finish 9-7 in the league and not be included, joining Florida State in 2006 and Virginia in 2000.
NCAA tournament selection committee chairman Tom O’Connor, who is also George Mason’s athletic director, offered several reasons why: The Hokies won only one game against the other teams in the field, over seventh-seeded Miami; they had four losses — all on the road, against Richmond, Penn State, Old Dominion and North Carolina State — to teams that ranked below 100 in the RPI; they did not win any nonconference games vs. eams in the RPI top 120; their only win in eight games against teams in the RPI top 50 came Friday against No. 34 Miami in the ACC tournament.

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After looking at the profiles and rankings of many bubble teams over the weekend, only one thing was made clear about the selection process: The RPI needs to go.
It does for college basketball the exact same thing that the BCS does for college football, merely plugging numbers into a formula and spitting out who should play for a national title.
But the difference is, we don't need computers for the NCAA tournament.
65 teams get a chance to go all the way, and could a computer really tell us who numbers 65 and 66 are?
In football, it makes sense. With only two teams playing for the title, the computers are needed to avoid bias. But for the tournament, I don't think many people are going to fix the selection process so that they get in as a 13 seed.
That being said, let's move on to some interesting RPI cases this year. First, let's compare three teams.
Team A: 18-13 (9-10 in conference). RPI: 58. SOS: 33

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St. John’s and Marquette, which both went 16-14 and were knocked out in the first round of the Big East tournament, will likely be left out.
In the past, both teams could expect a WNIT bid, but that might not happen this season.
The postseason WNIT picks a team from each of the 31 Division I conferences, with 17 at-large bids. The tournament began to choose its field that way last year when it expanded to 48. Marquette, with the better conference record, would get the automatic berth and St. John’s would have to sweat out an at-large bid.
Hartford may have played a high-quality nonconference schedule against teams such as UConn, Michigan State, Marist, Virginia, BYU, St. John’s and Kansas, but its conference schedule — plus losses to UMass and BU — would likely cost the Hawks an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if they lose in the America East final today.
According to collegerpi.com, the Hawks are 57th in the RPI, with the 188th strongest schedule. This season, only three America East teams — Hartford, Vermont and Boston University — had winning regular season records. Last year, after losing to UMBC in the America East final, Hartford was in better shape RPI-wise, finishing 47th with a strength of schedule ranking of 96th. But the Hawks still didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, going to the WNIT instead.

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