Selective Sunday: Breaking Down the NCAA Tournament Snubs and Surprises

Somewhere in the bowels of a meeting room in Kansas City the 34 at-large teams are selected, along with the 31 automatic bids that go to the teams selected for the NCAA tournament.

But venerable coach Bob Knight brought up an interesting point during the Sunday evening proceedings. Why not have 128 teams in the tournament? You'd certainly have your bubble teams in the tournament and you'd still have the possibility for some upsets. But as Dickie V so eloquently put it, you'd still have teams sitting at home bitching and moaning that they, too, were left out. For them, well, there's always the National Invitation Tournament or the College Basketball Invitational, the new kid on the block.

So that begs the question: Is it time for the NCAA Tournament to expand to 128 teams, as Coach Knight suggested? Certainly there are several teams who believe so. In all there were some snubs and surprises, which is always the case during the Big Dance and its selection process.

THE SNUBS: THE FADING FOUR

1. Arizona State (19-14)

After beating Arizona twice in the regular season, as well as playing in one of the toughest conferences in the country in the Pac-10 one could argue that the Sun Devils were snubbed. A tenacious defense befitting their fiery coach Herb Sendek along with a young and talented lineup, Arizona State looked on paper to make it into the Big Dance. But with an RPI of 82 the Devils were sent to the NIT with the hope that they would make it to Madison Square Garden and look toward next year.

2. Virginia Tech (19-13)

Narrowly losing to No. 1 seed North Carolina in the ACC Tournament, many thought Bruce Greenberg's team-first squad would make it to the biggest show of 'em all. But a rough stretch of games in which the Hokies struggled down the stretch along with not arguably having a big-name marquee type of star prevented the Hokies from getting in. They too will try to make their presence felt in the NIT.

3. Florida (21-11)