Joe Giblin / AP

Hakim Warrick and Syracuse are the No. 4 seed in the Austin Regional.

Selections

Notre Dame: The Irish had two chances to lock up a bid. They played UCLA, a genuine bubble team, at home Feb. 27. They lost by 10 in a game that barely was that close — and that gave the Bruins a bid that otherwise might have been in play. But even though that loss was doubly punishing, ND had an opportunity to recover. All that was required was a Big East tournament opening-round win over Rutgers. That didn't happen.

Maryland: The Terps took themselves out with three losses to Clemson. It's that simple. Maryland is the only reason the Tigers were not a sub-.500 team. Clemson is the only reason Maryland is not an NCAA team. Had the Terps won their opening-round ACC tournament game, they would have gained the spot that went to Northern Iowa.

Miami (Ohio): The Mid-American Conference got squeezed out of a second bid for the sixth consecutive year, which is ridiculous given how many have gone to the Missouri Valley Conference — the MAC's virtual equal — in that period. All Miami really needed to do in order to create room for itself was win at Marshall on the final day of the regular season. Marshall had won two league games and just five overall. Miami managed to lose to the Thundering Herd, 54-47.

DePaul: The Blue Demons held late leads on UAB twice in a period of nine March days. They couldn't hold either one. Winning either one probably would have placed them ahead of the Blazers, given their victories over Cincinnati and Notre Dame. UAB doesn't have any wins that good. Its best wins are against, well, DePaul.

Thus, this will be the fairest tournament the NCAA has operated in years. Maybe all those teams that fell made the job easy for committee members. But at least they got the majority of it right.