They made their bones beating up on each other and were rewarded with 7 regionals. When they ended up playing others who weren't concerned about the RPI's and the hype.... It got ugly.
In fairness to the tigah's, they just got swept by the most disrespected team in the field. Coastal was the only Top 16 RPI team (11) not to get to host. They got pissed and took care of NCState and lsu rather easily.