Bracketology Notes
Who's In: Marquette, Dayton, UC-Santa Barbara, Western Kentucky
Who's Out: Florida, Rhode Island, North Texas, Pacific
Rising: California, Oklahoma State, Marquette, Syracuse, Utah State
Falling: Villanova, Texas, Illinois, Wake Forest
Last Four In: Connecticut, Illinois, UAB, Washington
Top Four RPI's Out: Rhode Island (35), San Diego State (40), Florida (46), Wichita State (50)
Conferences with multiple bids...
Big East - 8 (Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Marquette, Connecticut)
ACC - 7 (Duke, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State, Maryland, Virginia Tech)
Big 12 - 7 (Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Baylor, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas A & M)
Big Ten - 5 (Michigan State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Illinois)
Atlantic - 10 - 4 (Temple, Xavier, Richmond, Dayton)
Mountain West - 3 (BYU, New Mexico, UNLV)
PAC - 10 - 3 (California, Arizona State, Washington)
SEC - 3 (Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt)
CUSA - 2 (UTEP, UAB)
West Coast - 2 (Gonzaga, St. Mary's, California)
The top two ranked teams (Kansas and Kentucky) looked more human this weekend as they were both upset. Syracuse also pulled off an impressive win as they dominated the smaller Villanova team with their size and intimidating zone defense. Duke may be the weakest of the four number one seeds, but dominated Virginia this evening to take a one game lead over Maryland. The ACC regular season title will be on the line when the Duke and Maryland meet on Wednesday. Duke is tied with Kansas and Syracuse for the most wins against top 50 RPI teams with 8 and has the toughest strength of schedule among the four number one seeds.
Purdue got a glimpse of how much they will miss Robbie Hummel this afternoon as Michigan State snapped the Boilermakers ten game win streak. Purdue freshman Patrick Bade logged double digit minutes (10) for the first time in a month and a half replacing Hummel in the rotation. Bade only recorded one rebound and one point in the game. Keaton Grant and Lewis Jackson appeared to be the other players that received more minutes in Hummel's absence. Purdue might become a bit quicker with Grant and Jackson on the floor in place of Hummel, but the team certainly struggled when center JaJuan Johnson sat down to rest. Teams with two solid big men may force Purdue to play a lot more zone defense in the future as Michigan State's Raymar Morgan seemed to have a field day. Purdue will be in trouble if Johnson ever gets into foul trouble. Fortunately, Purdue plays the two cellar teams of the Big Ten in the final week of the regular season so they should be able to experiment some more with the rotation before post season play.
Rhode Island has dropped four of their last five games and finds themselves on the outside looking in for the first time this season. The loss to Saint Bonaventure was devastating to their resume and now might have to win three more games to find themselves back in the field of 65. Charlotte and Massachusetts are next on their schedule. A win over the 49ers will not look as good as it would have three weeks ago as Charlotte has also lost four out of their last five games.
Xavier defeated Richmond in a thrilling double overtime game this afternoon in a battle of first place Atlantic 10 teams. Temple kept pace as they won at LaSalle. Xavier has a much easier week ahead of them than Temple with a trip to last place Fordham and a home game versus sub .500 Saint Bonaventure. Temple will have to beat a hungry fourth place Saint Louis team before heading home to end the regular season against a solid George Washington team.
California clinched their first regular season PAC-10 title in 50 years by defeating second place Arizona State yesterday. California has their RPI all the way up to 21 and should be a virtual lock for the tournament. Arizona State has two tough home games against USC and UCLA this week, but they should punch their ticket to the dance by winning both games. Washington has moved into third place in the PAC-10 and will seemingly make this a three bid conference by defeating both Oregon schools this week. A loss to either club would be devastating and mean Washington would probably have to advance to the PAC-10 title game for an at large bid.
The SEC will seemingly get another bid with three teams being among the first four teams out, but who will step up and take the bid? Florida should have almost locked up a spot, but dropped a tough game to Georgia this weekend. Florida has Vanderbilt and Kentucky this week and a win over either should atone for the Georgia defeat. Ole Miss has two trap games against LSU and Arkansas and will need to win both and likely their first SEC tournament game at a minimum to steal a bid. From the eye test Mississippi State might be the best of the three SEC schools, but they have the worst resume and have played the weakest schedule to date. The Bulldogs visit Auburn and then host Tennessee on Saturday so they could punch their ticket by taking care of business this week.
The teams listed below comprise "the best of the rest" teams in college basketball, but they are starting to run out of time. The ones at the bottom of this list almost have to win out and need to do some major damage in their conference tournament. With one more week of regular season play and conference tournaments on the horizon, the bubble watch list has been reduced to the best 25 teams.
Bubble Teams & Key Matchups
1. Florida - Vanderbilt 3/2, @ Kentucky 3/7
2. Mississippi State - Tennessee 3/6
3. San Diego State
4. Mississippi
5. Rhode Island - Charlotte 3/3
6. Wichita State - MVC Tourney 3/5
7. Notre Dame - Connecticut 3/3, @ Marquette 3/6
8. Minnesota
9. Memphis - @ UAB 3/3, Tulsa 3/6
10. Cincinnati - Villanova 3/2, @ Georgetown 3/6
11. Seton Hall
12. VCU - Colonial Tourney 3/5
13. Marshall - UTEP 3/2
14. Texas Tech - Baylor 3/2
15. South Florida - Connecticut 3/6
16. Charlotte - @ Rhode Island 3/3, Richmond 3/6
17. William & Mary - Colonial Tourney 3/6
18. Tulsa - @ Memphis 3/6
19. St. John's - @ Syracuse 3/2
20. North Carolina - @ Duke 3/6
21. Northeastern - Colonial Tourney 3/6
22. Louisiana Tech - @ Nevada 3/6
23. Illinois State - MVC Tourney 3/5
24. New Mexico State - @ Nevada 3/4, @ Utah State 3/6
25. Saint Louis - Temple 3/3, @ Dayton 3/6
- Jason Aufderhaar - RotoKingdom Staff Writer
