Wright State Impresses Even In NCAA Tournament Defeat

Image credit: Tyler Black (Courtesy Of Wright State/Kamp Fender)

Drew Gilbert on Friday night delivered an unforgettable moment in the Knoxville Regional. His big swing drove a walk-off grand slam deep out of Lindsey Nelson Stadium to give Tennessee a 9-8 victory against Wright State and sent the home crowd into pandemonium.

It was Tennessee’s first home win in an NCAA Tournament game since 2005 and it couldn’t have come in a more dramatic way. Gilbert said he didn’t let the moment overwhelm him.

“I just tried to let my mind shut off and just react,” Gilbert said. “I know my teammates got my back and I tried to have theirs there.”

As good as the win was for Tennessee, the loss was every bit as brutal for Wright State. The Raiders had the Volunteers, the No. 3 national seed, on the ropes in the ninth inning. Wright State led, 8-5, going into the bottom of the ninth.

After Tennessee scored five runs in 3.1 innings off ace Jake Schrand, the bullpen had shut down the Volunteers and the Raiders rallied. Tyler Black, a projected top-two rounds pick in next month’s draft, homered twice and they took the lead in the seventh on a three-run home run from Quincy Hamilton, the Horizon League player of the year. They tacked on an insurance run in the eighth, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

After two of the first three batters Tristan Haught faced in the ninth reached base, Wright State coach Alex Sogard went to Austin Cline, who typically is a starter but did make three relief appearances in the regular season, to try to close out the game. After a walk to Jake Rucker to load the bases, he gave up the blast to Gilbert.

“It was obviously a tough one to swallow,” Sogard said. “I thought we did a great job competing all night. We played the better game for the majority of that game, but we just didn’t finish in the end.”

Wright State deserved better. Not necessarily from the game Friday – though it’s hard to imagine a tougher way to lose – but from the selection committee. The Raiders went 32-11 and had won 20 of their last 21 games going into Friday (admittedly all in the Horizon League, which was not a strong conference this year). They had on Selection Monday a top-25 RPI, and five of their 11 losses came on the road against SEC opposition (Alabama and Vanderbilt).

According to RPI, Wright State should have been a No. 2 seed. A No. 3 seed probably would have been more appropriate, owing to its 1-7 record in non-conference play (in addition to going 0-5 against SEC opponents, Wright State lost a neutral-site series to Florida Gulf Coast) and an acknowledgement that RPI is an imperfect metric.

The Raiders were probably always going to be ticketed to one of three regionals – Knoxville, Nashville or South Bend – due to geography. Dayton, Ohio, is less than 400 miles away from all three and so they could be bussed to regionals, instead of flying. In a year where travel has been limited and the pandemic still could cause players to miss games if they were to be infected, making regionals more regional is understandable. But Wright State should have gone to Knoxville, Nashville or South Bend as a No. 3 seed and not have had to start the NCAA Tournament by playing a No. 1 seed on the road.

Wright State did what the selection committee asks small conference schools to do – it scheduled tough. In a year when it had very few slots on its schedule for non-conference games, it filled its first two weeks with SEC opponents. When Covid-19 issues with one of its conference opponents caused one of its Horizon League series to be canceled, Wright State met FGCU, one of the top teams in the ASUN Conference, in Alabama for a series.

Sure, it would have been nice if the Raiders had won more than one of those games. And, yes, the Horizon League is typically one of the 10 worst conferences in the country. But dominating a bad conference didn’t stop the selection committee from giving Fairfield – which didn’t play a single non-conference game – a No. 3 seed. Does that 1-7 record against a non-conference schedule ranked the 11th strongest in the country mean Wright State deserved a No. 4 seed?

Apparently, it does. Chairman Jeff Altier, the Stetson athletic director, on Monday brought up Wright State unprompted as an example of how the selection committee wasn’t beholden to RPI when making the field. Truthfully, however, it was one of the few deviations and another example of the selection committee not giving small schools the benefit of the doubt.

“Our evaluation said they good team, but they did not merit (their RPI standing) and they end up as a four seed in the event,” he said.

NCAA Tournament results can’t prove the committee was right or wrong. It can only evaluate the information it has at the time of selection. But it’s hard to imagine that anyone watched Wright State on Friday night and thought it was a No. 4 seed. Tennessee coach Tony Vitello sure didn’t.

“They got the one seed and a proper two seed going at it Friday night with their aces,” he said.