The conversation surrounding the health of SMU guard B.J. Edwards led to plenty of outrage on Wednesday night before the Mustangs had even started their game against Miami (OH).
For two days leading up to ‘Selection Sunday’, the injury status of Edwards was a talking point as to whether SMU deserved to be in the field. On paper, sure its resume’ looked like a team that would be worthy of hopping off the bubble and into the ‘first four’.
But, with the comments from NCAA Selection Committee chair, Keith Gill, the outrage seemed to take on a life of its own following the Mustangs’ 89-79 loss to the RedHawks.
What was the deciding factor for SMU to make the field?
“One of their important players, (BJ) Edwards, lost five of six of those games,” NCAA selection committee chair Keith Gill said about SMU. “He’s coming back. He’s the third leading scorer, defensive player. And so, the quality of wins and obviously them getting back to full strength allowed them to kind of get that last spot.”
Ok, so they trusted a school that was on the bubble to give correct information on a player’s availability with a spot in the tournament on the line.
Sorry, NCAA, that’s on you. Just making the tournament is a financial gain for the Mustangs, and maybe they actually did think Edwards would be available for the opening game against Miami (OH).
The problem was that there was zero guarantee that he would play. Even with SMU putting out a statement on social media and letting committee members know that it ‘expected’ B.J. Edwards to play in the opener, you can’t trust the schools to be 100 percent truthful about a player’s health, until they are forced to.
So, when the final injury report came out two hours before the game on Wednesday night and Edwards was listed as ‘out’, it was questionable whether SMU had played the system.
Following the 89-79 loss, SMU head coach Andy Enfield was asked about the events leading up to Edwards not taking the court.
“He looked really good in practice today, last couple days, he shot the ball well,” Enfield said following the loss. “He’s moving well, but I think there’s a thing called game readiness, and he just didn’t feel like he was quite game ready. He said, ‘I could definitely play on Friday, if we win this game,’ definitely going to play on Friday, but just not quite game ready.
“Really, that was probably a day short.”
OutKick spoke with one Power-4 head coach on Thursday morning, who had this to say about the ordeal.
“I’m sure the Edwards kid had the intention of playing. But, if you’re relying on the school to give you full transparency with a spot in the tournament on the line, it’s on the NCAA for relaying the message that this was a main reason as to why they got in. What’s SMU supposed to say? They weren’t going to imply that he’d be ready by the second game, but not the first.
“If that were the case, it didn’t sound as if the NCAA would have put them in.”
Either way, hopefully the NCAA learned a lesson from this ordeal.
And next time, I’d imagine the selection committee won’t trust an availability report for a team on the bubble, or a team looking to increase its seeding in the tournament.
