SI Article on Milwaukee

[Hack]

Everyone seems to be taking the word "stealer" too personally, like Milwaukee didn't earn it if it gets in. Of course, Milwaukee will have earned it if it wins the conference title, just like any other team that wins a conference tournament.

However, ask yourself this ... if Milwaukee loses Tuesday night, would it get an at-large bid? No. Therefore, Milwaukee would have taken a bid away from the pool of at-large bids (and this is only applicable if Butler grabs an at-large).

[PantherU]

Much ado about nothing.

[uwmfansince1997]

Mar 2, 2011 23:57:15 GMT -6 ghostofdylan said:

Have to say I'm with King on this one.

The regular-season champions of a very good mid-major league should be representing their conference in the first place (I'm old school; it matters more what you've done over two and a half months than what you do for four days.) Combine that with a tournament championship in that same very good mid-major conference and I don't see how they're stealing a bid from anyone ... least of all a middling BCS team like Baylor or Minnesota.

Well put. When you're from a non-BCS conference I guess any reference concerning success is looked at as theft (bid-stealer).

But on the other-hand I love the NFL draft effect this team has been experiencing. After there out of nowhere success, everyone is trying to catch up on the story or acting like they knew the team the whole way through, come on. In the draft, the fans, who don't watch college sports on a general basis, criticize and critique about a player or team they know nothing about. The truth is in all the story's and inaccurate information this team has been labeled with, ' bid stealer.'

[Rawls]

Agreed with Jimmy. Who cares what "they" call us, so long as we get in.

I will say this - our RPI is currently 97; fairly well out of the top 68. We have 12 losses, no one in the latest Bracketology has more - Tennessee and Michigan each also have 12. We've got a few bad losses. The committee doesn't look at the last few weeks, it looks at the whole season (and rightly so). When we step back and look at it from an impartial view, "stealing" a bid is fair.

With that said, let's embrace it. The talking heads and self-described experts won't respect us anyway (see BYU, San Diego State). We can all name teams that have been successful for years at the mid-major level and still are discredited by the old guard. I have confidence that we will win the conference crown, and confidence that we will represent the school well against whomever we may draw.

[PantherU]

The funny thing is, even if we lose, we'll be "stealing" an NIT bid. Hahaha