Legends of the Pen: NCAA Tournament Invitations

John Fox's Legends of the Pen Archives:
Jan. 27: Remembering A Similar Rally | Jan. 6: Great Hoop Starts | Dec. 17: Previous Invitations | Nov. 25: Big and Tall Shop | Nov. 4: Clear The Deck For Football | Oct. 14: The Syracuse-Pittsburgh Rivalry | Sept. 23:The Syracuse-Colgate Rivalry

Jim Boeheim would not at all have liked the number of teams in the NCAA Tournaments's early years. Coach Jim is all for the proposed great leap upward to 96 teams. By chance, 96 was the exact total for the tourney's first dozen years --eight teams each year, times 12!

Nor would Dr. Daryl Gross (Syracuse director of athletics) have at all liked the geographical preference displayed by the NCAA selection committees of before his day.

The athletic director cleverly advertises his university's troops under an orange streamer lettered, "New York's College Team." It's left to the viewer's choice, and his or her viewing location. New York the state; New York the city?? Y'know, NEW (pause) YORK'S (pause)...TEAM!

For that first dozen years, however, selection committee rules limited our state to an annual maximum of, at most, one team. In fact, the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey were limited to a combined total of one team in that period, as NCAA District 2. Resultantly, New York State's representation reads like this:

1939--no NY team, 1940--no NY team, 1941--no NY team, 1942--no NY team, 1943--NYU (New York University), 1944--no NY team, 1945--NYU again,1946--NYU again, 1947--CCNY (City College of NY), but with an orange asterisk duly attached to depress today's website reader, 1948--Columbia University; 1949--no NY team, ignoring Brooklyn's again-unbeaten Long Island U. Blackbirds; 1950--CCNY again (and swept NCAA/NIT double!).

In the six of those years in which the state of New York was invisible, the empty berth was filled by, successively, Villanova, Duquesne, Pittsburgh, Penn State and, twice, Temple. Keystone Staters, all.

About the 1947 asterisk: Syracuse had the inside track until late-season defeats by previous victims Canisius and Colgate, but was granted the opportunity to play CCNY for the NCAA berth on a neutral court, the armory in Troy, almost halfway through March. The game wound up the wrong way, 61-59, a heavily-taped Billy Gabor's shot at the buzzer unsuccessful, and it would be 10 years before SU again had a shot.

Dividing the 48 existing states into eight NCAA districts could prove very inequitable. District One consisted of the six New England states, and while Dartmouth and Holy Cross teams each deserved their multiple-season selection, Springfield College and Tufts became quite unforeseen matchups for Indiana and Kentucky.

Also, with the districts unrevised, if Kentucky and North Carolina both completed unbeaten schedules for No. 1 and No. 2 in the infant Associated Press poll, one would have to be left home in March uncapitalized madness.

For 1951 and 1952, the NCAA finally doubled its eight-team tournament format to 16 teams, but the committee still seemed to march to the words of "New York, New York! It's a wonderful TOWN!" The 1951 change enabled both a return by Columbia and a debut for St. John's. With somewhat additional expansion in 1953, Fordham became the fifth different New York City participant, with still no Upstater. Manhattan would be a sixth, but not until Cornell made the breakthrough in 1954, followed the next three years by Canisius. From the wrong lakes, those two, in the perspective of vale-of-Onondaga partisans -- until 1957 brought Syracuse's its first opportunity.

Strictly a coincidence, but the result have transpired without conspicuous effort by someone from Brooklyn -- Vinnie Cohen, literally driving the way to the Regional Final and respectable 9-point margin in fall to unbeaten, champion-to-be North Carolina. Boeheim was a seventh-grader at the time, but 1957 has remained Syracuse basketball's only NCAA unless he has lent a hand in the outcomes. He played in the next appearance, as a 1966 senior veteran whose finale was a regional-final against Duke. He became a full-time assistant coach for the four straight NCAA seasons at the end of Roy Danforth's tenure, a Final Four included.

For more than 20 years, 1953 through 1974, the tournament field wavered between 22 and 25 teams until 1975, the first 32-team bracket, the Final Four and Jimmy Lee. Within seven seasons starting in Boeheim's third year at the helm, Big Dance party rose to 40, then 48, then 52, 53 and 64.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Current Big East members' Final Four appearances and those by the Big Ten Conference are a dead heat, 46 apiece unless subtracting eligibility violations by which the NCAA has vacated original placings. One strippped Villanova's 1971 championship upon exposure that tournament MVP Howard Porter had previously signed a professional contract, and two violations involving Big Ten teams, Minnesota players in 1997 and Ohio State's 1999 for its previous coach's violations. Does that give Big East a 45-44 lead, tying the Big Ten with the unpenalized ACC?

BIG EAST (46 Final Fours): Louisville 8, Cincinnati 6, Georgetown and Villanova 5 each, Syracuse 4, UConn and Marquette 3 each, DePaul, Providence, St. John's and West Virginia 2 each; Notre Dame, Pitt, Rutgers and Seton Hall, 1 each. That's 15 of current 16 members, lacking only the 'baby' of the family, South Florida which has never eached the tournament. None of three defectors who during the last decade left the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference -- Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Miami -- ever reached a Final Four in a combined 32 tournament appearances. Texas Christian, joining next year, is also without a trip to the semifinal. Villanova's championship in 1971 was vacated because of tourney MVP Howard Porter previously signing a pro contract

BIG TEN (46 Final Fours): Ohio State 11, Indiana and Michigan State 8 apiece, Michigan 6, Illinois 5, Iowa and Purdue 3 apiece; Wisconsin 2; Penn State 1, Minnesota 1. That's 10 of current 11 members, lacking Northwestern which has never been chosen for the NCAA tournament -- especially ironic, since its campus was the site for the inaugural 1939 tournament's Final Four. Nebraska, next to enter, also is without a Final Four. Minnesota's 1997 semi and Ohio State's in 1999 were vacated because of violations.

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE (44 Final Fours): 44 Final Fours. North Carolina 18, Duke 15, North Carolina State 3, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia Tech 2 apiece. Wake Forest and Florida State 1 apiece. Clemson, Virginia Tech, Miami, and Boston College none.

PACIFIC-10 (38 Final Fours): one vacated place. UCLA 18, Arizona 4; California 3; Stanford and Oregon State 2 each; Oregon, Washington and Washington State, 1 apiece. (Southern Cal, Arizona State none). Utah, joining next year, has four Final Fours, and Colorado none. UCLA suffered the vacated place for ineligibility in 1980.

BIG TWELVE CONFERENCE (33 Final Fours): Kansas 13, Oklahoma State 6, Kansas State 4, Oklahoma 4, Texas 3, Baylor 2, Iowa State 1. Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M, Texas Tech none.

SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE (29 Final Fours) Kentucky 13, Arkansas 6, Florida and Louisiana State 4 apiece, Georgia and Mississippi State, 1 apiece. Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Mississippi, Auburn, South Carolina none.

Syracuse University Athletics

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