When talking about snubs, we’re usually referring to teams not being selected for March Madness, individuals not making an all-star team, maybe movies or TV shows not being nominated for an award. The “snub” conversation typically comes up a few times each year and almost always under very similar circumstances. There are occasions where a swipe left seems to come out of nowhere when the swipe right appeared to be the obvious decision.
It’s rare to have these debates come up in the world of men’s volleyball, but here we are.
For some reason — and I say that somewhat sarcastically — the selection committee opted to invite UC Irvine as one of its two at-large selections for this year’s NCAA Tournament. That choice is hard to fathom when simply looking at the numbers and on-court performance. Irvine had some big wins throughout the year, but if the selection committee was considering a head-to-head choice between they and Hawaii, then the decision makes little to no sense.
Hawaii was left out of the tournament in favor of UC Irvine and UCLA. Putting the Bruins in the field does make sense, though the ‘Bows did pick up a victory over them earlier this year. In fact, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser pointed out that Hawaii is the only team in the country to earn wins over both UCLA and unanimous No. 1 ranked Long Beach State this season.
The Beach went 25-1, with that one blemish coming at Hawaii less than two weeks ago. It was the most impressive result of the season for any squad.
Those marquee wins aside, Hawaii just eliminated UC Irvine in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament last week. That gave the ‘Bows two wins in three matches with the Anteaters.
But lo and behold, as the bracket was read aloud, there was UC Irvine as the conference’s second selection in the seven-team field.
Former UH women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji didn’t waste any time commenting on the men’s plight. He took to Twitter to say “NCAA selection biased against Hawaii. IMO, its (sic) financial, Irvine drives to UCLA!”
His point is a fair one as he is essentially saying that it costs the NCAA much less to have UC Irvine in the field rather than Hawaii, given the location of the tournament at UCLA’s campus. From someone as respected throughout the NCAA and volleyball community as Shoji, this comment is more than just sour grapes. He sees these issues with decades of experience and an understanding of the inner workings of this particular system. For him to voice that opinion delivers a pretty clear message as to the likely reasons behind the committee’s decision.
Whenever teams are selected and don’t simply earn their way into a competition, there will always be room for these types of debates and critiques. Hawaii probably left this decision in the committee’s hands more than it should have. A few losses throughout the season and a mediocre road record came back to bite them, but it’s still hard to argue that UC Irvine deserved the at-large spot more than the ‘Bows.
When the No. 4 ranked team in both the coaches poll and RPI gets passed over for a team ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, then perhaps there are other motivations at play.
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David Simon can be reached at dsimon@thegardenisland.com.
Yes, its all about $$$MONEY$$$, more money, more honey! Maybe UH Board should have “slipped” a nice fat envelope under each of those committee members pocket and “walla” UH gives a slot to compete again! Works with politicians all the time
They needed to fit Ohio State, Conference Carolinas, and the EIVA into this lineup. For some reason everyone thought Hawai’i winning UCI, UCLA, and Long Beach State once, was enough. That wasn’t it. The sweep to CSUN, loss to BYU, was enough to not select Hawai’i. Giving King and Harvard a shot at the national title. MPSF, Big West. Here we go again. It is all West coast. But Ohio State wants in. UCLA and Long Beach State clearly are bigger than Ohio State. What for? They want in.