It was because of metrics and they are a bunch of bullshit. Basically we had close games against bad teams earlier in the year, are turnover prone (mostly due to style of play but style of play overcomes it), and had a couple of "bad" losses because Jamie Dixon is an excellent coach. Based on NET metrics we should be a 7 seed but we literally beat everyone and have a winning record against every team that got a 3. The committee put more emphasis on that than actual results. What really grinds my gears is that winning the conference tourney wouldn't have mattered. We thought we were a 3 seed playing for maybe a 2 but in the eyes of the committee we were a 5 seed before the Baylor game.
But what's done is done. Instead of layup and likely round of 32 win we get to face a team we beat 9 times out of 10 but has the potential to go 18-25 from 3 and pull an upset. After that we likely get a team that's a bad match up and our reward after that is Illinois. I say bring it.