Series on the 2006 Missouri State men’s basketball NCAA Tournament snub

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Each summer, I like to research a Springfield sports topic from the past that fascinates me.

Sometimes those topics are worth celebrating — like the 2003 Southwest Missouri State baseball team that reached the College World Series or doing a deep dive into the most influential female sports figures in our proud sports area’s history.

But sometimes, I obsess over the stories that have some heartbreak, along with some joy to uncover at the same time.

This summer, I decided to look into what I believe to be the single most detrimental decision in Missouri State men’s basketball history — the NCAA Tournament selection committee’s choice to leave Missouri State out of the big dance in 2006.

Hope turns to disgust as the last team to the NCAA tournament is anounced and it is not the MSU Bears. The Sugar Bears and fans watched the selection program at Hammons Student Center following the Lady Bears Victory.

To this day, fans still talk about their nightmares from that Selection Sunday — and for good reason. The Bears probably should have made the tournament with the No. 21 RPI in the country. Many characters on the team are still beloved to this day and I believe they were more than deserving of playing on the sport’s biggest stage.

The part that fascinated me the most, heading into this research, was the impact that this decision had on the lives of those who were directly involved in the team; most notably, former Missouri State head coach Barry Hinson.

Hinson’s life, and the last 17 years of Missouri State men’s basketball, would have been very different if those in an Indianapolis conference room decided the Bears were more worthy of a bid than a team like Air Force.

“Snubbed” is a seven-part series that goes back and looks at the 2005-06 Bears. The goal of this series was to celebrate and remember the team as one of the best to come through the school while also investigating the heartbreak and decisions made by key figures from the period.

Missouri State coach Barry…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/starting-sunday-series-2006-missouri-090744045.html?src=rss

Author : Springfield News-Leader

Publish date : 2023-07-06 09:07:44

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