This was not a Sunday for West Coast basketball fans to celebrate.
USC, which finished second in the Pac-12 Conference regular season and tournament, was left out of the NCAA Tournament. UCLA and Arizona State received at-large bids, but were sent to the dreaded First Four games in Dayton, Ohio. Saint Mary’s, second in the West Coast Conference and ranked in the top 20, also was left out despite winning 28 games (which only further illustrates why Gonzaga could be willing to leave the conference for the Mountain West).
Even San Diego was left short on marquee teams for the first- and second-round games scheduled for this week at Viejas Arena. Only one other site did not get any seeds higher than No. 4, and that one — Boise, Idaho — wound up with blue bloods like Arizona, Gonzaga, Kentucky and Ohio State. San Diego got Auburn, Wichita State, Clemson and West Virginia (plus Cinderella possibilities in Charleston, Marshall, New Mexico State and Murray State).
On Friday, in the East Region, No. 4 seed Wichita State faces No. 13 Marshall at 10:30 a.m. and No. 5 West Virginia plays No. 12 Murray State at about 1 p.m. The evening session features Midwest Region games starting with No. 4 Auburn vs. No. 13 College of Charleston at 4:27 p.m., followed by No. 5 Clemson vs. No. 12 New Mexico State at approximately 7 p.m.
The biggest names on the marquee here are coaches — West Virginia’s Bob Huggins, Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Gregg Marshall of Wichita State and Marshall’s Dan D’Antoni, who might not be well-known but does have a rather famous brother: Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni.
Most surprising, though, was who was left out: Arizona. The Wildcats won the Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles and received a No. 4 seed, but unlike most top-four seeds, they were not sent to the site closest to home. Instead of flying about 365 miles west to San Diego, Arizona must head 840 miles north to Boise, Idaho.
“Arizona was the fourth No. 4 seed, so they had to go where the slot was left,” Creighton Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen, the chair of this year’s NCAA Tournament selection committee, said on a conference call. “That’s why they ended up where they ended up.”
Rasmussen didn’t say why the last slot was in San Diego, given that both Auburn and Wichita State are closer to Boise than they are to San Diego.
The Wildcats also would have brought controversy with them, given their connection to the FBI’s investigation of the sport. But San Diego still has a team that was caught up in the same probe: An Auburn assistant lost his job after the news came out, and top post players Danjel Purifoy and Austin Wiley did not play all year.
The Tigers still won the regular-season SEC championship but have struggled since mid-February, when shot-blocking forward Anfernee McLemore suffered a season-ending injury.
If nothing else, some of the teams coming to San Diego will be happy to be anywhere. Auburn hasn’t been to the tournament in 15 years, Charleston last appeared in 1999, and Marshall has been absent since 1987.
And Marshall’s first game will be against another Marshall, Wichita State’s coach (who was an assistant at Marshall from 1996-98).
A limited number of all-session bench seats remain available for the six Viejas Arena games (four Friday, two Sunday) for $240.
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