West Virginia ranks at the bottom of the 50 states in most quality-of-life categories, but the MAGA governor over there, Patrick Morrisey, isn’t having the attorney general conduct an investigation into any of that.
No, Morrissey is demanding an investigation into why the WVU basketball team was left out of the NCAA Tournament.
I wish I was making this up.
“West Virginia deserved to be in the NCAA Tournament. This was a miscarriage of justice and robbery at the highest level,” Morrisey said, at a Monday press conference that he called, I swear to god, to raise issue with who got picked, and who didn’t get picked, to play in a basketball tournament.
On that point, the governor could have just asked me or read AFP.
I reviewed the metrics that the selection committee uses to judge the resumes of prospective at-large teams, and found that the committee was perhaps just being nice listing West Virginia as the First Team Out of the field, one spot behind North Carolina, the Last Team In.
ICYMI
Morrisey’s ire is being misdirected at the inclusion of North Carolina into the tourney field, hinting at possible funny business with the fact that Bubba Cunningham, the athletics director at UNC, is also the chair of the selection committee this year.
Never mind that the NCAA has long since had procedures in place for dealing with perceived conflicts of interest with the rotation of ADs who have served on the committee over the years.
MAGAs love having them some conspiracy theories to chew on.
“It’s being reported by a number of outlets that Cunningham had a significant bonus incentive, at least $70,000, to get into the tournament, arguably more if they advance, with more incentives on the way,” Morrisey said.
The presence of these incentives in Cunningham’s contract is not anything out of the ordinary, to the point that if the AD at West Virginia, Wren Baker, doesn’t have similar bonus incentives in his contract with WVU, that would be a sign that Baker is probably out of his element as a power-conference athletics director.
Back to the issue of UNC getting in over WVU: UNC’s average computer ranking was 37.1, 10 full spots ahead of WVU’s 47.4 average rating.
That number, down near 50, incidentally, should feel familiar to West Virginians when it comes to a ranking system: US News pegged the Mountaineer State 46th in its most recent Best States rankings, with the state ranking 48th in economy, education and healthcare, and 50th in public infrastructure.
I dunno, maybe get the AG, JB McCuskey, to investigate that, as opposed to wasting his time and the state’s scarce resources on basketball.
“We want to find out what it is that the NCAA is doing to objectify this process, because there’s too much money and there’s too much time being placed by too many people in order for this to be a completely subjective analysis. What we want is the 68 best teams in the tournament,” McCuskey said at today’s presser.
Imagine if the MAGAs in charge over there would put this kind of energy into improving the quality of life for West Virginians.
Right?
In any case, if Morrisey and McCuskey really want to get to the bottom of things, they could ask the NCAA how Texas, with an average computer ranking of 51.0, four spots below WVU, got a bid over a number of more-worthy contenders.
That would be MAGA-on-MAGA crime, though, so, I get it.
“This stinks at the highest level,” Morrisey said, summing up his thoughts – no, not about the air quality in the state, which ranks 47th nationally, due to the smog emanating from its power plants, but actually, again, about a basketball tournament.
Video: West Virginia governor focused on the important stuff
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Chris Graham
