• NCAA payouts (men's basketball) - growing gap

 #13044  by Affirm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:14 pm
When will Furman get to the NCAA basketball tournament again? Any time in our lifetime?
Is this a question similar to when will Clemson beat UNC in Chapel Hill?
Note:
Since Furman last appeared in the NCAA tournament in 1980, these things have happened:
7 current SoCon schools have played a total of 40 games in NCAA tournaments:
14 UTC
10 ETSU
4 Mercer
3 UNCG
2 Samford
1 WCU
6 Wofford
(Although not on the above list, VMI has a better win-loss record in NCAA tournaments than Furman does. VMI has played in 6 NCAA tournament games and has a 3-3 record.)
5 other mid-majors from the state of South Carolina have played a total of 27 games in NCAA tournaments:
6 CofC
5 SCSU
1 CSU
4 CCU
11 Winthrop
So it IS time for Furman to get there. It will be good when it happens. On the other hand, with the above information, I feel like we should avoid talking about it too much when it happens. Others have been there. (Of course, if we get to the Sweet 16 or beyond then it's a different matter.)
This is not to devalue the goal (of getting in by winning the SoCon, or of somehow getting in as an at-large), but instead is to avoid devaluing any regular season game we win regardless of how many W's and L's we may have in a given season.