Will OSU make the NCAA Tournament?

[skyvue]

I have no way of knowing, of course, what the selection committee would do when faced with a decision like that. It just seems logical to me that a well-known player like Smart, or any other highly-publicized player, would give his team an advantage. A psychological one, perhaps, but an advantage nevertheless.

It needn't even be a conscious consideration on the part of the committee. This is what relentless hype (could also be called propaganda) accomplishes.

The SEC gets so much hype in football that it creates a vicious cycle. Talking heads and reporters everywhere buy into it, and it becomes self-perpetuating. We see this when schools like Georgia (or who was it last year -- Ole Miss or Miss State, I can't recall) get top ten recruiting classes based on nothing but SEC hype. Repeat the lie (or the debatable or overstated "fact") often enough and it sinks in. People start to accept it as genuine fact.

That's what has bothered me about the hype that has surrounded Smart since he arrived in Stillwater (and even before): It preceded and exceeded his accomplishments. Early in the Big 12 season last year, it was in full force -- so much so that the announcers could talk about little else but Smart during the first Bedlam matchup, despite the fact that OU won handily and Smart had one of his worst games of the season.

That kind of relentless hype impacts the thinking of fans, selection committees, poll voters, members of the media -- you name it.

So it won't be the committee members asking themselves, "Do either of these teams have a star player?" It'll be the ingrained perception that Smart is a special player and oswho is a special team, despite the results on the court. There's a reason oswho is still in the Top 20 and it's not the way they've played in recent weeks.

 

[AdaSooner]

It needn't even be a conscious consideration on the part of the committee. This is what relentless hype (could also be called propaganda) accomplishes.

The SEC gets so much hype in football that it creates a vicious cycle. Talking heads and reporters everywhere buy into it, and it becomes self-perpetuating. We see this when schools like Georgia (or who was it last year -- Ole Miss or Miss State, I can't recall) get top ten recruiting classes based on nothing but SEC hype. Repeat the lie (or the debatable or overstated "fact") often enough and it sinks in. People start to accept it as genuine fact.

That's what has bothered me about the hype that has surrounded Smart since he arrived in Stillwater (and even before): It preceded and exceeded his accomplishments. Early in the Big 12 season last year, it was in full force -- so much so that the announcers could talk about little else but Smart during the first Bedlam matchup, despite the fact that OU won handily and Smart had one of his worst games of the season.

That kind of relentless hype impacts the thinking of fans, selection committees, poll voters, members of the media -- you name it.

So it won't be the committee members asking themselves, "Do either of these teams have a star player?" It'll be the ingrained perception that Smart is a special player and oswho is a special team, despite the results on the court. There's a reason oswho is still in the Top 20 and it's not the way they've played in recent weeks.

Well said, Skyvue! It does seem strange that a 16-6 team with a losing record in conference play is still ranked in the top 20 after losing their last four games. One has to believe that the hype Smart and OSU received in the pre-season had a lot to do with their lofty ranking when the season started. While it's true OSU hasn't been the same since Cobbins went down with an injury, I haven't seen anything of late to make me believe they deserve to be ranked that high.