Check this out from ACC Now, the Atlantic Coast Conference blog at the Raleigh News & Observer. The Missouri Valley Conference, as you know, got just as many NCAA bids as did the ACC. This is, evidently, a major blow to the self-esteem of ACC fans.

The way they’re reacting, you’d think Bradley got a 1-seed, and is awaiting the winner of the Duke/UNC 8/9 game. I’m really sorry, fellas, that the selection comittee doesn’t give out bids based on conference reputation. Chris Paul is not walking through that door, fans. Charlie Ward is not walking through that door. Juan Dixon is not walking through that door. Nik Caner-Medley might walk through that door, but he’s not quite good enough.

Sometimes, you’re just don’t deserve more than 4 bids. Sometimes, you’re the third-best conference in the country. That’s OK. You can still join in our reindeer games. You just can’t have your entire conference in the tournament, just because you feel like it.

I don’t recall any of the selection committee member saying that the MVC was better than the ACC. But that’s how they’re taking it. I dunno. Some people are fragile.

Who else did they want to get in? I’m sorry, Florida State, but you can’t build an entire resume off of one win. And then there was Maryland, so confused and distraught by being left out of the field that they initially declined an NIT bid.

“All I want to know going into next year is what we need to do schedule-wise or whatever,” Terps coach Gary Williams said. ”

Well, I have an idea. You could not lose 8 of your last 13 games. You could not get your ass whooped in a must-win game against Boston College. Those ideas are radical, but… that might work. Sometimes you have to think outside the box.

Vaginas.

I don’t want John Chaney the coach to be remembered as the crazy old bastard who sent in a thug to break a player’s arm. I don’t want him to be remembered as the guy who threatened to kill John Calipari.

Actually, I guess I wouldn’t mind the second one. You can’t tell me that your eyes aren’t glued to SportsCenter every time they show that clip.

Chaney, Temple head coach for 24 years (though it seems like about 60) has retired. They don’t make coaches like John Chaney anymore. His retirement is a sad thing, for a lot of people. It’s sad for the Atlantic 10, it’s sad for people who like watching good basketball, it’s sad for Temple, and it’s sad for all of the young ballers in Temple’s recruiting area.

Whether I like it or not, he will be remembered for two incidents; incidents which most people see as a condemnation of his chracter, but I see as the marks of a passionate coach.

First, of course, he threatened to kill John Calipari. I’m not saying this is a great thing, but… ask yourself how excited you’d be in the coach of your favorite college basketball team stormed into a press conference being conducted by your arch rival’s coach, and then threatened to kill him.

Both guys laugh about it now, no one was hurt, and as fans, we get to enjoy a video clip that never ever gets old. Coaches so rarely threaten to kill each other anymore. The man stormed into a press conference with the intentions of physically fighting another head coach. A head coach about thirty years younger, at that. That’s phenomenal.

More recently, though, he sent a Temple bench player named Nehemiah Ingram into a game to take some hard fouls against an opponent that Chaney felt was setting illegal screens. Ingram ended up breaking another player’s arm. To me, it’s a non-issue.

He sent in a player to take play physical and send a message. 95% of the coaches in the country have done the very same thing. If you don’t think coaches routinely tell their players to play physical, to throw elbows, to send the message that they won’t be pushed around, you’re just wrong.

In this case, the player followed instructions, the opponent fell awkardly, and his arm broke. I’m sorry, as I’m sure John Chaney was, that the man was injured. But basketball can be a physical game, and injuries happen. Nehemiah Ingram was not the first player ever to take a hard foul, and John Chaney was not the first coach ever to instruct a player to do so.

Even if you can’t forgive the above incidents, even if you seem them as huge, harmful, mistakes, try to place them in the context of what else John Chaney has accomplished in his career.

John Chaney’s career, in fact, his life, has been about helping young people. You can’t even count the number of young men who’s lives have been changed, shaped, affected, maybe even saved, by John Chaney. It’s what he does. He’s made it his business. And if the trade-off for that is a near fight between head coaches and one guy breaking an arm, then sure, Nehemiah Ingram can break my arm.

And none of this even mentions what he’s accomplished as a coach. Temple’s been to the Elite Eight 5 times under Chaney. He’s got over 700 wins, becoming the first black head coach to get there. He’s a Hall-of-Famer. And there are a lot of black coaches around the country that can thank John Chaney. He had a lot to do with the push for the hiring of more black coaches in the NCAA in the ’90s.

There isn’t a lot that I can do to change it, but I think it’s a shame that John Chaney will be remembered by a lot of people just for the Nehemiah Ingram incident. That shouldn’t even register as a tiny little blip on his coaching career.

Just some quick-hitters for you… I’ll probably change my mind about everything by Thursday.

Toughest Bracket: Duke’s. 1 though 6, this bracket is the toughest. You start with Duke, the #1 overall seed in the tournament. Then there’s Texas with their balanced team and dominant bigs. The 3 is Iowa, a solid team that plays as fundamentally sound as anyone. An underrated and dynamic LSU team is 4th, the on-fire Syracuse Orangemen are 5th, and West Virginia and their difficult-to-prepare-for style is sixth. I think it’s a tough draw for all involved.  And George Washington at #8 is just plain fucked.
Runner-up: UConn’s bracket, featuring veteran-laden Illinois, a peaking UNC, and an unpredictable Michigan State… but Tennessee at #2 is oh so weak.  I think Bruce Pearl was sweating so much because he knew what he’d have to do to the guys on the selection committee to get a seed that high.

Weakest Bracket: Memphis’s. UCLA as a 2-seed? Man, the value of a 2-seed has really slipped recently.  As groups, I like both the 3-seeds and the 4-seeds better than the 2-seeds. Gonzaga, because of their resume, probably deserved a 2, but I don’t think they’re actually better than the 3 that they got. Kansas is a good 4 and a dangerous team, and Pitt’s probably the best 5-seed in the tournament. I don’t see Indiana doing much at the 6-seed.

Conference that got the happy ending: Pac-10. UCLA as a 2 and Cal as a 7 are both just absurd.

Conference that got the shaft: Nothing really stands out here. I think 4 teams from the MVC was fair, and 4 from the ACC was fair. It seems like the committee, when it came to seeding, really gave the benefit of the doubt to the power conferences, and that’s probably as it should be.

Teams I like to exceed expectations: Illinois, UConn, Georgetown, Villanova, Bucknell, Xavier, Iowa, LSU.

Teams I think will fall short of expectations: Arizona, Nevada, Michigan State, UCLA, Indiana, Texas, Syracuse.