I’m not sure if Virginia Tech’s Saturday night home game with #1 Duke is a
must-win situation for the Hokies, but a victory over the Blue Devils would make
me feel a lot better about Tech’s NCAA Tournament chances.

Last week the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee invited 20 members of the
media to watch a mock selection of the tournament field. The committee wants the
public to know more about what goes on behind closed doors. Come watch how the
sausage is made, if you will.

Jason King of Yahoo Sports, who was present at the mock selection, wrote a
very informative article on the process, which you can read here.

I won’t go over the entire article step by step, but a few things stood out
to me: the point that conference tournaments don’t mean much to the Selection
Committee, and the fact that they put most of their emphasis on strength of
schedule, top 50 RPI wins, and quality road wins rather than conference
standings and conference strength.

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