Soft Pretzel Logic

You think the DAC is a tough place to play? You have got to be kidding me.

Its a junky crappy arena that is often less than half filled.

You make it sound as if NC State had to go into the DeanDome or Cameron.

You truly underestimated the better team, from the better league. If NCState was such a cream puff, how did they manage to win 3 games in the ACCs?

Give me a break, JT

Not sure I agree about attendance at the DAC. The average crowd this season was 2,133 in a 2,500-seat gym.

As for N.C. State's run in Tampa, it surprised just about everyone. The Wolfpack went 5-11 in conference play in the regular season. That included a loss at Miami and home losses to Clemson and Maryland only as the Terrapins were starting to get hot. The road conference wins were at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest; the home conference wins were UNC, Va. Tech and Wake.

N.C. State also lost to Cincinnati and West Virginia out of conference. The Wolfpack's only non-conference wins over teams with RPI numbers above 150 were Delaware State (120) and a vastly over-RPI'ed Michigan (54).

I'm not trying to be snide or anything, believe me. Just trying to back up what I asserted.

Whether or not you are trying to be snide, it certainly comes off that way.

Not trying to come off as "rude" here, but you are doing a fair share of home cooking -- both with your blatant pro-Drexel beliefs, and your incessant Penn cronyisms.

These are two nice teams from nice small little conferences. They have little or no major appeal on the national stage outside of Philadelphia. Sure, U of P has a large alumni base nationally, but everyone knows they lose to bigger stronger and better teams come March.
The one year they did win, they were led by two of the school's greatest players ever, including a transfer from a SEC program. But the one win is overshadowed by recent losses.

Sorry, but that is the blatant truth, JT

Hmmm...interesting Mitchell, so you think a columnist, working for a local Philadelphia paper, on a blog that claims to be mainly “about college sports in the Philadelphia region” may have some sort of hometown bias? I think you might be on to something. It's also interesting to note the number of national analysts who shared Jonathan's hyper-provincial reaction to Drexel's omission from the tournament. Why, they must have "blatant pro-Drexel beliefs" as well.

As for Drexel themselves, it's sort of unsurprising that a team that had been that hot and cold managed to get down on themselves after not making the Big Dance. Though I understand how you could have seen it the other way. Additionally, NCSt guard and senior Engin Astur said of the DAC last night "It took a little while for us to get adjusted - it was pretty loud." That's a pretty impressive compliment to the student section at Drexel especially coming from an ACC starter.

Keep up the good work JT.

Noah -- A few comments to your points:

1) Last time I checked, Tannenwald is NOT a colunmnist. He is a Blogger.

The columnists in this town are (in no order) guys like Steve Smith, Bob Ford, Rich Hoffman, Phil Sheridan, Johnny Smalls, and Dick Jerardi. I consider these guys the real sports gurus. There are also a handful of others from the regional papers (ie Delco Times, Burlington County Times, Camden Courier Post, and the Philadelphia Tribune)

2) Regarding the Drexel bias, I am still awaiting his logic and rationale as to WHY he thought they were about to go on some magical and glorious run through the watered-down NIT. All I heard and read was the "yup, they got hosed by Gary Walters" argument. Not once did I see any basketball insight, analysis of matchups, breakdown of players, or anything along those lines regarding Drexel.

My points here did not address the failure of Drexel to make the NCAA field. Or to criticize those that did, regardless of where they may reside. My point was that JT failed to make a logical coherent argument in support of Drexel in the NIT.

3) Lastly, the title of the blog is: "a blog about college sports in the Philadelphia region and across the country". You failed to include the end of the title in your post.

JT does a solid professional job. I am not discrediting that whatsoever. But some of the content of the work is subject to criticism.

Well, I must admit that I would never go so far as to label myself a columnist. I've got a long, long way to go before I can get to that point. The Inquirer and Daily News columnists and many other writers across the region have probably forgotten more than I know.

I would also admit that I didn't go into the kind of depth on all of Drexel's potential matchups that I would have if I had more time. Had the Dragons beaten N.C. State, I would have done a scouting report for their next matchup, and done more of them if they had kept winning.

But in general, I would point to the post where I listed all my picks for the NIT bracket as at least being something more than nothing.

And believe me, I'm always open to criticism. I've actually been really happy that the tone of the comments on the blog have been as civil as they've ben so far.