Collegiate Times

Malcolm Delaney reacts after being hit in the head by a Florida State player.

As Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg strolled into the team’s practice facility Sunday night, the questions he faced were all too familiar.

In a year characterized by a tremendous high (a win over No. 1 Duke) and depressing lows (two losses to Virginia and Georgia Tech), the Hokies did not get the news they expected. But it was the same news they have received the past four years: They aren't invited to the Big Dance.

Decked out in an all-white Tech tracksuit, the eighth-year head coach had a slightly different response to the Hokies failing to make the NCAA Tournament this time around.

“You almost wonder if someone in that room has their own agenda and that agenda doesn’t include Virginia Tech,” Greenberg said. “Just plain and simple. I totally wonder it, if someone in that room has an agenda.”

After being left out of the NCAA Tournament the previous three seasons, Greenberg and the Hokies had good reason to believe they would be part of the newly expanded field of 68 teams in 2010-11. However, as the bracket was unveiled, the Hokies failed to find their name among the country’s top teams.

“What I’d like to know is if there’s ever been a team that’s won nine games in the ACC, played the non-conference schedule that we played, and beat a No. 1 seed and still didn’t get in,” Greenberg said.

In fact, since 1985 when the tournament field expanded to 64, Tech is the sixth team to beat a No. 1 seed in the field, have a winning record in conference and be left out of the Big Dance.

The Hokies were not alone on Selection Sunday, as several other teams with similar resumes failed to make the cut. Colorado, with three wins over Kansas State and six top-50 wins, was among the teams with the biggest complaints. Alabama, who finished 12-4 in the SEC and an RPI of 48, was also on the outside looking in after Sunday’s unveiling.

“Look, we’re not alone,” Greenberg said. “It’s not, ‘Oh, oh, pity us.’ I think there are other schools that have a similar argument for sure, because there are really some things that are very confusing, if you really do look at it, in terms of the process.”

Greenberg went on to say there are some areas of the selection process that are not clear.

“There’s a lot of contradictions, if you look at the body of work,” Greenberg said. “There’s a lot of very mind-boggling contradictions. But I mean, tell us what we need to do. Don’t come on television and say certain things, but then if you look at it under a microscope, what you’re saying is really not what you did.”

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who was serenaded by Hokies fans during his trip to Blacksburg earlier this year for College GameDay, had similar qualms with the selection process. The former Duke player, who in the past has dismissed Tech’s arguments for the Big Dance, took a different tone this time on Selection Sunday and sided with Tech.

“The two teams I would say who should have gotten in first would be Virginia Tech ... and Colorado,” Bilas said on ESPN’s Bracketology following the selection show.

“These are horrible decisions,” Bilas added later. “I sometimes wonder if people on the committee know the ball is round.”

Dick Vitale, who assured Hokie fans their team would be in during the victory over then-No. 1 Duke, was adamant Tech should have made the tournament field.

“You look at Colorado, you look at Virginia Tech, there is no way in the world they should be denied a berth over (UAB and VCU),” Vitale said during the broadcast.

In a teleconference with the media, NCAA selection committee chairman Gene Smith continued to exude ambiguity regarding the omission of the Hokies.

“At the end of the day, when we stacked Virginia Tech’s resume up against all the other teams, we just didn’t feel like they were a team that should be in the at-large field,” Smith said.

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A version of this article appeared in the Mar 15 issue of the Collegiate Times.