(RADIO.COM Sports) It has been two years since we last had a bracket to fill out, but March Madness is back now. Naturally, there are some fan bases upset with how Selection Sunday played out.
Like every year, there were snubs, questionable seedings and regions that appear to be a much more difficult road than others. Here's a look at which teams got screwed over by the selection committee.
Louisville
There is always at least one team that gets snubbed, and this year that happens to be Louisville. The Cardinals went 13-7 and finished seventh in the ACC, so they were certainly a bubble team. But many bracket gurus were projecting them as one of the last four teams in. Louisville's strength of schedule against other at-large and play-in teams -- such as Wichita State and Syracuse -- was much tougher, but it didn't matter.
Louisville fans and others were quick to jump to conspiracies on social media too, pointing to the fact that the selection committee chairman is the University of Kentucky athletic director. While the Cardinals drew the first-team-out card, former Louisville coach Rick Pitino is back in the tournament with Iona as a 15-seed after leading the Gaels to a MAAC tournament title.
Loyola-Chicago
The darlings of the 2018 NCAA Tournament are back, but like Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect. Three years after a Cinderella Final Four run as an 11 seed, Loyola-Chicago returns as a No. 8 seed, but even that seems a bit unfair. The KenPom rankings rate the Ramblers as the No. 9 team in the country. They play in the lesser Missouri Valley Conference, so their strength of schedule doesn't match up with others, but an eighth seed still feels low for a team that, per KenPom, has the best defensive efficiency in the country.
As if the No. 8 seed isn't tough enough of a draw for Loyola, it faces a Georgia Tech team coming off an ACC Tournament championship win. If Loyola gets past Georgia Tech, it has a formidable No. 1 seed in Illinois up next in what might be the toughest region in the bracket.
Illinois
OK, OK, a No. 1 seed can't really get “screwed” by the committee, but Illinois has the toughest road to the Final Four among all the top seeds.
Illinois will have their hands full in the Round of 32 against the winner of the Loyola-Georgia Tech matchup. While we previously listed Loyola as a team that got screwed, it has the capability to upset Illinois if the two meet.
Should Illinois advance to the Sweet 16, it might have Tennessee staring down at them next. The Volunteers, like the Ramblers, boast one of the top defenses in the country, per KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating. If it's not Tennessee waiting for Illinois in the Sweet 16, it could be fourth-seeded Oklahoma State, which is playing well late in the season and led by projected No. 1 draft pick Cade Cunningham.
If the Illini can emerge from the gauntlet that is the Midwest Region, the remaining teams in their way should beware because they will most certainly have been battle-tested if they get to the Final Four.
Michigan State/UCLA
Michigan State and UCLA are grouped together because they are going up against each other in one of the First Four play-in games. It feels as if network executives got a hold of the committee on this one so they can have two of the sport’s most storied programs face each other despite both having a strong case to be set in the initial 64 teams.
While the Spartans finished just eighth in the Big Ten, they had one of the toughest schedules in the nation and Michigan State picked up some impressive wins along the way with victories against Michigan, Illinois and Ohio State. Every one of those wins is more impressive than Syracuse’s best victory, for instance.
UCLA doesn't have as strong an argument as Michigan State and losing its last four games certainly didn't help. But it doesn't seem as if the committee was all that impressed with the Pac-12, where the Bruins finished fourth. Oregon, which won the conference, earned a No. 7 seed and will face VCU.
LSU
LSU just put in an impressive showing in the SEC Tournament championship on Sunday afternoon, falling just short in an 80-79 loss to Alabama, 80-79. Almost beating a team doesn't really count for much, yet a No. 8 seed still feels a little too low for the Tigers, especially in a dangerous matchup against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies.
The good news is LSU may be a trendy upset pick to upset top-seeded Michigan if it moves past St. Bonaventure. The Tigers have an offense that can keep pace with anybody, it’s just a matter of how much their defense can hold up against an equally as impressive offense.
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