[OutsiderFan]

I felt the committee would pick Washington over California because they won the conference regular season, but that's not because it seemed like the right thing to do.

The NCAA looks at the conference tournaments as an extension of the regular season.  It's not like Washington blew away the Pac-12 field and got denied after losing a first round game.  They finished one game ahead of California in the regular season.  California beat a higher seeded Stanford team than Washington lost to in Oregon State.  That gave California and Washington the same overall conference record.  California's RPI was way higher than Washington's, and on top of that, the only time the two teams played, California won in Seattle. 

The committee was more than fair to pick California over Washington and put them in a play-in game against the last qualifier of one the best conferences.  I mean if Cal can't beat the 9th best Big East team, South Florida, does it really belong in the tournament as an at-large team?

To me, the tournament committee deserves a lot of credit for how they handled the Pac-12 in this terrible year for the conference.

[OutsiderFan]

I felt the committee would pick Washington over California because they won the conference regular season, but that's not because it seemed like the right thing to do.

The NCAA looks at the conference tournaments as an extension of the regular season.  It's not like Washington blew away the Pac-12 field and got denied after losing a first round game.  They finished one game ahead of California in the regular season.  California beat a higher seeded Stanford team than Washington lost to in Oregon State.  That gave California and Washington the same overall conference record.  California's RPI was way higher than Washington's, and on top of that, the only time the two teams played, California won in Seattle. 

The committee was more than fair to pick California over Washington and put them in a play-in game against the last qualifier of one the best conferences.  I mean if Cal can't beat the 9th best Big East team, South Florida, does it really belong in the tournament as an at-large team?

To me, the tournament committee deserves a lot of credit for how they handled the Pac-12 in this terrible year for the conference.