Joni Comstock Strength Quotations

I don't know that there's been a year where there's been greater parity. Strength of schedule is something we do look for and it's important to the committee. The schedule Tennessee played this year and plays most years, however, as close as it was, we felt that Tennessee this year was a No. 2 seed.

Western Kentucky really didn't have the strength of schedule we really were looking for.

We start with the win/loss record, and the strength of schedule for the team, and its opponent's strength of schedule. We also consider RPI, but a team is not in or out based solely on RPI. It is just a tool we use to organize the information. We also look at how well they are playing in the last half of the season to see if the team is improving.

Strength of schedule is something we look for.

In looking at Ohio State and Maryland, it was very, very close. Maryland was one of the teams the committee looked at very carefully in terms of consideration for a No. 1 seed. In our final judgment, two of the things that worked against Maryland were the four losses and it did not bring quite the strength of schedule as the other teams.

Certainly, they have good strength-of-schedule and a good RPI. But it certainly helps to win the tournament.