Tournament Status of Teams (2/25 - Teams that are looking good)

Next we look at the teams that are looking good for a bid. As you will see the resumes of these teams are not of the same quality as the teams that are in. Check back later tonight for the teams that are truly on the bubble. Counting these teams with the teams that already have bids only leaves 6 remaining open spots.

Almost every single bubble team and team on this list dropped in the RPI. I am not sure exactly what that means.

RPI(Old) - The RPI as calculated this year (vs the RPI calculated in previous years)
R/N - Road and Neutral site record
L10 - Record in last 10 games
Good win - A win against a Top 50 RPI team
Bad Loss - A loss against a team ranked lower than 100

ACC
Maryland (16-10, 7-8, RPI 36(29), 6-8 vs Top 100, R/N 4-7, L10: 5-5)
Good Wins: @Duke, Duke, Georgia Tech
Bad Losses: Clemson, @Clemson
Projected Seed: 9
(3/1) Looking good maybe isn't the proper designation for Maryland. Maybe looking good enough is. If they beat Virginia Tech they are fine. If they lose they have to sweat it out. Maryland probably has done enough to warrent a bid.

(2/25)The predictions are on what the committee is going to do, not on what should happen. Just because you are in the ACC should mean squat. You should actually have to win more than a couple quality games. Terrible on the road and against the Top 100. This team is sinking fast.

Big-12
Texas (19-9, 8-7, RPI 47(35), 4-9 vs Top 100, R/N 4-7, L10: 5-5)
Good Wins: Oklahoma St., Texas Tech
Bad Losses: None
Projected Seed: 10
(3/1) Win against Missouri gets Texas to at least .500 in conference. You can definately make a case why they are playing their way out of the tournament. The problem is you have to find a team to replace them

(2/25)Texas cannot win on the road. This is another team that is sinking fast. Like Maryland, conference affiliation is going to sneak this team in. Texas is going to be going home from the dance early.

Big East

Notre Dame (16-9, 8-6, RPI 53(36), 6-8 vs Top 100, R/N 4-6, L10: 4-6)
Good Wins: Villanova, UConn, Boston College
Bad Losses: @Michigan
Projected Seed: 8
(3/1) Beat all the right teams in the Big East. Win against Rutgers should be enough. 4-6 in the last 10 shows Notre Dame is not on the right track. They need to start playing better than they did against UCLA. That was one of the most uninspiring performances I have seen in a while.

(2/25)That win over Boston College will go a long way in impressing the selection committee. I can’t understand why Maryland is considered a safer bet over Notre Dame either. This is coming from someone who is not a fan of the Big East either.

Big-10
Minnesota (19-9, 9-6, RPI 48(30), 6-7 vs Top 100, R/N 5-6, L10: 6-4)
Good Wins: Holy Cross, Wisconsin
Bad Losses: Florida St., Northwestern
Projected Seed: 10
(3/1)1 win away from being a lock.

(2/25)Big 10 supporters can’t complain about getting no love. Minnesota’s resume is way too shaky to be sitting on this side of the bubble.

Pac 10
UCLA (16-9, 9-7, RPI 39(35), 7-8 vs Top 100, R/N 6-6, L10: 6-4)
Good Wins: Washington
Bad Losses: @Oregon St.,
Projected Seed: 8
(3/1) Only the two Oregon schools at home stand in the way of their tournament bid.

(2/25)California Better hope they are not fighting with Stanford for that last tournament spot. Just win at Notre Dame and all ills will be forgotten. (or enough to be tournament bound)

SEC
Florida (18-7, 10-4, RPI 32(27), 6-5 vs Top 100, R/N 5-4, L10: 7-3)
Good Wins: Alabama
Bad Losses: @Florida St., Tennessee
(3/1) They probably have done enough to make the tournament. A win at Kentucky at the season finally would improve their standing considerably.

(2/25)A loss to Tennessee in football is considered a good loss, not in basketball. A good example of why the SEC is down this year. Florida is clearly hit big by the change in RPI calculation.

Mississippi St. (19-8, 7-6, RPI 30(32), 6-6 vs Top 100, R/N 9-7, L10: 5-5)
Good Wins: (N) St. Marys, Florida, Arkansas Little-Rock
Bad Losses: @Tennessee, @Auburn
Projected Seed: 8
(3/1) Looking better all the time. A chance to get revenge against Alabama for the beating they took earlier in the season. Mississippi St. is most likely in at this point.

(2/25)Obviously the best resume of the bubble teams. Probably not a fair categorization of this team. If they keep winning I will move them up.

LSU (17-8, 10-4, RPI 26(26), 8-6 vs Top 100, R/N 5-7, L10: 8-2)
Good Wins: Mississippi St. @ Mississippi St., Florida, Alabama
Bad Losses: @ Southern Mississippi, @Tennessee
Projected Seed: 8
(3/1) They probably have done enough to be a lock as well. They just need to avoid a let down the rest of the way. No real competition before the SEC tourney.

(2/25)Loss at Southern Mississippi. Ouch. Good thing that loss is ancient history. LSU doing exactly what the selection committee wants to see. Good record in the last 10 games. 3 straight Top 50 victories. The only weakness is that 3-7 Road/Neutral record. That is a good indicator of a team that will exit early.

WCC
St. Mary’s (23-7, 10-3, RPI 32(46), 3-2 vs Top 100, R/N 8-6, L10: 8-2)
Good Wins: Gonzaga
Bad Losses: (N) Memphis, @Rutgers, @Hawaii, Santa Clara, @Santa Clara
Projected Seed: 10
(3/1) Two real at large bids from the WCC. St. Mary's is most likely in, they just have to make it to the conference finals to guarantee that bid.

(2/25)St. Mary’s is looking good right now. They have Gonzaga to thank. The win over Gonzaga puts them in. The reason St. Mary’s is in is sympathy from other small schools getting shafted along with another way for the committee to reward Gonzaga.