NCAA Men's Tournament 2021: Who Got Screwed in the NCAA Bracket?

The bracket for the 2021 men's NCAA tournament is finally here.

As always, many fans feel their team was royally screwed by the selection committee.

Some of those controversial decisions involve the bubble, where there will be a whole lot of "How did that team get in while this team was left out?" for the next few days.

In other cases, teams got in, but perhaps on a seed line or two worse than expected.

And then there are the teams that simply got screwed with bad matchups.

One difference from previous years is you won't find any entrants on this list who got screwed in regard to location. Usually a few teams are placed at a major geographical disadvantage, but that isn't the case this year with the entire tournament to be held in Indiana.

As irate as some of us may be, let's all try to remember that this was a more impossible task than usual for the selection committee. It's hard enough to find separation between teams in a normal year when everyone is playing 30-34 games. This year, we debated over teams like 15-12 Michigan State, 14-6 Saint Louis, 16-5 Wichita State and 25-4 Drake for the final few spots.

There were a plethora of apples and oranges comparisons this year, and 100 committees probably would have come to 100 different conclusions on where to seed everyone.

With that acknowledgment out of the way, let's rip this particular committee's decisions to shreds.

Got to get the party started with the most surprising team to miss the tournament field, and this year, that team is Louisville.

Did the Cardinals deserve to get in?

Well, obviously not. Most of us thought they would, though, as their resume was one of the less hideous ones among those on the bubble.

Lack of marquee wins was an obvious issue for Louisville. A road victory over "Wasn't even selected as an at-large replacement team" Duke was Louisville's only Quadrant 1 win. But the Cardinals had six wins over the NET top 60 once you factor in the home games against Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Duke, Seton Hall and Kentucky.

That collection of victories compared against the one loss to a team outside the NET top 50 (at Miami) felt like it should have been enough.

After all, Drake only had one win against the NET top 95 and suffered two bad losses. And Wichita State—which, notably, had a much worse NET rating (72) than Louisville (56)—went 2-4 against the NET Top 100 plus a bad loss to Cincinnati.

Now, far be it from me to complain about mid-majors getting at-large bids, so let's also compare to a major conference No. 11 seed: Syracuse.

If just one Quadrant 1 win kept Louisville out, how the heck did Syracuse not only get in but also avoid the play-in games? The Orange's only "great" win was at NET No. 73 NC State. They also had home wins over UNC, Clemson and Virginia Tech.

But, overall, Syracuse had three NET top-60 wins to Louisville six and had twice as many bad losses, getting swept by Pittsburgh. I spent much of the past week pointing out that there wasn't much separation between Louisville and Syracuse, but even I never could have dreamed the Orange would land five spots ahead of the Cardinals on the overall seed list.

Did it really come down to something as ridiculous as "wins against the field," where Syracuse's January win over Georgetown all of a sudden looks good and Louisville's December win over Western Kentucky lost value when the Hilltoppers got bounced in the C-USA championship?

If so, that's absurd.

For starters, Ole Miss was a popular bubble team this past week. But based on the Rebels landing fourth on the list of COVID-19 at-large replacement teams, it looks as though they weren't going to get in even if Georgetown and Oregon State had not stolen auto bids from the bubble.

I more or less agree with the ranking. I had the Rebels as my third team out. At that point, tomato tomato, right? (I'm being told that doesn't really work via text, but you get it.) But I did think the Rebels had a good case with three Quadrant 1 wins and a season sweep of Missouri.

Of course, we all apparently held Missouri in much higher regard than the selection committee. Most bracketologists had the Tigers as either a No. 6 or No. 7 seed, but they got a No. 9. Their metrics were terrible, so that was a tough team to figure out where to place for the past month. But with seven Quadrant 1 wins, it's hard to believe they ended up that far down the seed list.

(And, to make matters worse, Missouri was given the No. 9 seed in Gonzaga's region. Double whammy!)

LSU was also egregiously under-seeded as a No. 8. Those Tigers had five Quadrant 1 wins (two against No. 3 seed Arkansas, by the way) and only had one semi-bad loss against Georgia. They finished in the top 30 in both NET and KenPom.com's rankings. But they, too, need to eliminate one of the four best teams in the country to reach the Sweet 16. (Not that we're looking past St. Bonaventure.)

Houston had two Quadrant 1 wins and got a No. 2 seed.

Oklahoma State had 10 Quadrant 1 wins and got a No. 4 seed.

Well OK then.

The Big 12, as a whole, was a little under-seeded. Texas arguably should have received the No. 2 seed that went to Houston. Texas Tech easily could have been a No. 5 instead of a No. 6. And even though Oklahoma struggled over the past month, it's surprising that the team that was the committee's No. 12 overall seed (last team on the No. 3 seed line) on Feb. 13 got a No. 8 seed.

Hands down, though, this Oklahoma State as a No. 4 seed is the most ridiculous.

Had the Cowboys won the Big 12 title game against Texas, I suspect they would have been a unanimous No. 2 seed in the Bracket Matrix. Even with the loss, many of us spent Sunday grappling with whether Oklahoma State, Houston or Texas most deserved that final No. 2 seed.

For them to land at No. 4—even behind West Virginia, which the Cowboys have beaten twice in the past 10 days—is outrageous.

However, I love Oklahoma State's draw, and I've already penciled them into my Final Four. 

So, the team who really got screwed here is Liberty.

The Flames were fairly seeded as a No. 13, rewarded for a strong 23-5 campaign. They played well early in the year against Purdue and Missouri and beat Mississippi State and South Carolina. Against a properly seeded No. 4, they would've had a shot at winning a game.

But Liberty isn't going to shut down Cade Cunningham.

In the maroon-and-gold corner, you have Loyola Chicago.

The Ramblers are, without question, better than they were when they went to the 2018 Final Four. Cameron Krutwig is a legitimate second-team or third-team All-American candidate, and this defense is ridiculously efficient. Loyola finished ninth on KenPom and 10th in the NET.

And yet, they got a No. 8 seed.

If you compare their resume with Houston's, there's no way there should be a six-seed-line gap between those teams. The overall records, the quadrant records, the strengths of schedule, the metrics—they all suggested teams that aren't all that different from each other.

But, I suppose because one is in a semi-major conference (Houston in the AAC) and one is in a mid-major (Loyola-Chicago in the MVC), that made all the difference. (Somehow, though, the second-best teams in each league was deemed indistinguishable and will square off in a First Four game.)

And in the white and "old gold" corner, you have Georgia Tech.

In most years, the team that wins the ACC tournament gets a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. It was a down year for the ACC and by no means am I suggesting the Yellow Jackets should have been in that conversation. But that's usually viewed as a mighty impressive achievement by the selection committee.

But for Georgia Tech's trouble of going on an eight-game winning streak and claiming the ACC tournament title, it was merely awarded a No. 9 seed.

Much like Krutwig, you could name Moses Wright a third-team All-American without any objection from me. Senior point guard Jose Alvarado is also one of the easier players in the world to root for.

There's a strong case these teams could have been a No. 6 and No. 7 seed, respectively, and they both would've had some Elite Eight potential in the bottom half of any region. Instead, they are forced to battle each other in a No. 8 vs. No. 9 game for the right to draw Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn in the second round.

Villanova's resume absolutely deserved a No. 5 seed. No arguments there. The Wildcats were in the running for a spot on the No. 1 line back at the end of January, but recent losses to Butler, Providence and Georgetown really brought this thing back to earth in a hurry.

As a No. 5 seed, though, they were hoping to draw a No. 12 seed that doesn't create much backcourt pressure or push the tempo. That's because they lost senior point Collin Gillespie to a torn MCL a few weeks ago, and they're still trying to find their way in his absence, even putting Chris Arcidiacono in the starting lineup.

Obviously, they couldn't have drawn Georgetown since they are Big East rivals. Oregon State or UC Santa Barbara would have been OK, though. Those are both slower-paced teams. The Gauchos do force a good number of turnovers, but they're not that oppressive.

Instead, Villanova drew Winthrop, one of the fastest-paced teams in the field, and one with a point-forward (Chandler Vaudrin) who has recorded three triple-doubles this season.

There haven't been many times in recent history in which Villanova was clearly overmatched at the "primary ball-handler" department by anyone, let alone a mid-major. That will clearly be the case in this game, though.

The Wildcats could still win, of course. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is a star athlete the likes of which Winthrop hasn't come across yet this season. But this is the most obvious spot for a 12-over-5 upset that I've seen in years.

This almost never happens, but I believe BYU got screwed by getting a better seed than it deserved.

With just their two noteworthy wins (at San Diego State and at Utah State), a questionable loss to Pepperdine and an ugly, 26-point loss to USC, I thought the Cougars were destined for either a No. 7 or No. 8 seed. They were No. 28 on my final seed list, which equates to the bottom No. 7.

Had they gotten a No. 7, they would have drawn one of Virginia Tech, Maryland, Rutgers or VCU. All due respect to those teams, but none of them should scare you. I'm most likely picking the No. 7 seed to win (at least) one game in all four regions even though the last time all four No. 7 seeds advanced was, fittingly, in '07.

Instead, BYU not only got a No. 6 seed, but it also got the least enviable spot on that line, drawing the winner of Michigan State vs. UCLA.

In each of the first eight years after the NCAA tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011, at least one of the two "play-in game" winners also went on to win in the first round. That streak came to an end in 2019, but barely as Belmont came an inch away from knocking off Maryland.

Could it be Wichita State or Drake beating USC instead? Absolutely. I have no faith in the Trojans these days. But the obvious pick is either Michigan State or UCLA knocking off BYU.

And then, even if the Cougars can survive that initial test, they (barring an upset) would need to face the best No. 3 seed (Texas) in the second round.

It's just a brutal path to the Sweet 16 for a team that definitely looked worthy of reaching the Sweet 16 in that WCC championship battle with Gonzaga.

We'll keep this final one brief because I'm sure not too many of you care about the cut line between a No. 15 and No. 16 seed.

However, it's a huge deal for the one-bid leagues because history suggests you are eight times more likely to reach the Round of 32 as a No. 15 seed than as a No. 16 seed.

And Drexel should have been the former.

The Dragons, who have shot 51.4 percent from three-point range in their last six games, by the way, finished the year at No. 135 in the NET and No. 146 on KenPom.

Here's where three of the No. 15 seeds landed:

• Iona: 181 KenPom, 138 NET
• Cleveland State: 151 KenPom, 160 NET 
• Oral Roberts: 152 KenPom, 158 NET

I fully appreciate that the metrics aren't everything, and I'm perfectly fine with Cleveland State getting that No. 15 seed ahead of Drexel since the Vikings did have a Quadrant 1 road win over Wright State.

But Oral Roberts and Iona went a combined 0-6 against Quadrant 1 and did not face a Quadrant 2 opponent. Iona also suffered four Quadrant 4 losses, compared to just two by Drexel. It's hard to see any reason on either resume to have that team ahead of the Dragons.

Did the committee seriously screw over Louisville and give former Louisville head coach and current Iona head coach Rick Pitino better than he deserved?

What a time to be alive.

Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball and college football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.