Coach Jerry Stackhouse made a compelling case for our team making the field of 68 in the NCAA Tournament on ESPN earlier this morning.

Stack was awesome in his interview. Our great coach made a superb case for our team getting in.

LaPhonso “Fons” Ellis, of the ESPN basketball crew, believes strongly in us and says we should be in and we’ll do damage once we get in. 

Couldn’t agree more with Fons and our phenomenal coach.
 
What else did we need to do? We defeated tournament teams Kentucky, twice, once on the road and the second time in the tournament with a sea of blue in the crowd though our crowd was super as well. But twice against the heavily favored Wildcats. It doesn’t get any better than that. 

Then we have victories over tournament teams Auburn Arkansas, Mississippi State (they’ve got a good shot), Pitt, has been in all season, even though they’re on the precipice right now. Our strength of schedule is tremendous at 30 and should be better playing every team in the SEC and teams like NC State and Saint Mary’s, both solid tournament teams. We may not have won those two games, but we were highly competitive.

We finished 6th in the conference finishing 11-7 and we finished 20-14 overall. 

Beyond that, how can you look at Ezra Manjon, Jordan Wright and Tyrin Lawrence and this team and not see by the “eye test,” the most important asset for a team, and not see this group as a tournament team? It’s a slam dunk.

We played a Texas A&M team with very tired legs and A&M was hotter than a Texas skillet from the field, but we kept battling and turned what looked like a 24 point rout into a 12 point loss. That fight should mean something to the Committee as well.

I’m not in Joe Lunardi’s camp. Mark Wise of the SEC Network and ESPN said before the Kentucky game in Rupp a week and a half ago, that we needed to win the Kentucky game, emerge victorious against Mississippi State at home, and then win two games in the SEC Tournament and we’d be in.

Mission accomplished. We belong in the field of 68. I’m hopeful the Committee sees all this evidence that points to a team that belongs in the field of 68, and that we will hear our name called just after 5 PM CT on CBS.