Tennessee's Rick Barnes 'Baffled' by Aggies NCAA Tournament Snub

The Aggies aren't the only ones who don't understand their exclusion from the NCAA Tournament.

While a No. 1 seed in the NIT is nothing to sniff at, Texas A&M men's basketball fans are still reeling from the Aggies' exclusion from the 2022 NCAA Tournament. At this point, the NIT seems more like a consolation prize.

The Aggies were hot late in the season and entered the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Florida on a four-game winning streak. During the tournament, A&M beat Florida, No. 4 Auburn, and No. 15 Arkansas (A&M's first consecutive wins over ranked opponents since 2007) on its way to an SEC Tournament championship game matchup with No. 5 Tennessee.

Aaron Cash

Tyrece Radford

Buzz Williams

The Aggies fell behind Tennessee 14-0 to start the game and couldn't recover, ending their seven-game winning streak. But regardless of the loss to Rick Barnes' Tennessee Volunteers, A&M was on a hot streak at the right time. And with the wins over Auburn and Arkansas, surely the Aggies would earn a spot in the big dance.

But late Sunday afternoon A&M basketball fans were stunned and outraged as the selection committee didn't value any of those wins for the Aggies, and they were passed up for the NCAA Tournament.

A&M athletic director Ross Bjork took to Twitter on Sunday night to express his displeasure, indicating the selection process was "flawed".

It doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to figure out. This a flawed selection process if we do not reward teams who deserve an opportunity. Based on how we’ve responded before, I can assure you, no one will battle with stronger fight than @aggiembk & this staff @TeamCoachBuzz

— Ross Bjork (@RossBjorkAD) March 14, 2022

Even though his team won the SEC tournament, Tennessee Volunteers coach Rick Barnes agreed, “When you look at it, to answer your question, everybody said that we were a 3-seed going into the SEC Tournament, so it doesn’t look like the tournament helped us. Certainly, I don’t understand how a team in the SEC that wins 12 games like Texas A&M, and is playing great basketball at the end (of the season), not being in the tournament. It just baffles me, it really does."

Barnes went so far as to suggest that not only should the SEC tournament be moved up a day so that the committee could have more time to process what happened before the selections, but that the committee hold a press conference on the Monday after announcing the brackets so the group could explain their line of thinking.

Ethan Henderson (10), Manny Obaseki (35), and Hassan Diarra (5)

Rick Barnes (L) and Buzz Williams (R)

Tyrece Radford

Just like when the A&M football team was excluded from the 2020 College Football Playoffs, nothing will help the basketball team feel better about this until they're in. And the way coach Buzz Williams has his team rolling, an NCAA Tournament appearance can't be far away.

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Follow Timm Hamm on Twitter at @IndyCarTim

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