We have made it to Championship Week! The regular season is in the books and we are less than one week away from Selection Sunday. Tickets will be, and have already been, punched. Five teams are officially dancing. Three teams are going for the first time in school history. They are Ohio Valley champion SIUE (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Big South champion High Point and Summit League champion Omaha.
Drake (Missouri Valley) and Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun) are also heading to the tournament.
As we begin Championship Week, the top line remains the same, though the gap between Auburn and Duke has closed a bit after Auburn dropped their last two games. That said, it took a buzzer-beater floater from Mark Sears to give Alabama the win.
That win moved Alabama to No. 5 on the seed list, behind Florida. No. 6 Tennessee and No. 7 Michigan State also still have a chance to get to the top line.
At the end of the 2-seed line, here's the Johnnies! (Insert Ed McMahon's voice here.) Rick Pitino's crew claimed the Big East title and that should give them some weight if it comes down to them and Texas Tech for the spot.
As far as the bubble goes, since our last update, Xavier is in and Nebraska is out. Xavier has kept the ship afloat while Texas and North Carolina have failed to take advantage. The Tar Heels really needed that win over Duke. But the biggest loser was the Cornhuskers.
Not only did Nebraska lose to an Iowa team that didn't have a single Quad 1 win (now 1-14), they lost their spot in the Big Ten tournament. 15 teams are heading to Indianapolis for the Big Ten tournament. Nebraska will not be one of those teams. Ironically, Iowa ended up as the last team in with that win Sunday.
Nebraska goes into the clubhouse at 17-14 and with computer numbers all outside the top 50, some outside the top 60. They are 5-10 against Quad 1, 4-2 against Quad 2 and 2-2 against Quad 3 (home losses to Rutgers and Minnesota, both inside the NET top 100). That's 11-14 against the top three quadrants, which may leave a bad taste in the committee's mouth. Nebraska is likely NIT bound.
Another team that has played their way into conversation, and could very well be a bid thief, is Colorado State. The Rams completed a season sweep of Boise State and will be the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West tournament. They also have home wins over Utah State and San Diego State.
Two bids will be handed out today. Troy and Arkansas State will battle for the Sun Belt title while Wofford and Furman will decide who represents the Southern Conference in the dance.
We also have semifinal action in the Horizon, Coastal and West Coast tournaments, plus quarterfinal action in the Southland and Big Sky tournaments.
Here is the latest bracket update.
Last Four In: Indiana, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Xavier
First Four Out: North Carolina, Texas, Boise State, Colorado State
Next Four Out: SMU, Nebraska, San Francisco, UC Irvine
Conference Breakdown
SEC - 13
Big Ten - 10
Big 12 - 8
Big East - 5
ACC - 3
Mountain West - 3
West Coast - 2
One-bid leagues - 24
As always, check out the Bracket Matrix to see how this bracket stacks up to the rest of the bracketology world.
No comments:
Post a Comment