How Safe are we? Joey Brackets says...

[JasonS]

He is a slave to the RPI and Non Conference SOS

Yup and he fails to realize that when you play in a conference like the Big East, OOC SOS is not as important as it is for a school like Xavier or Dayton playing in the A-10.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Lunardi has UC 33rd on the S curve. Yahoo sports has them a lock. Palm has them a 10 seed.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Who's got work to do? Connecticut tops the list, followed by Seton Hall, South Florida and West Virginia. Cincinnati sure looks tourney-worthy and should be fine, but its RPI is so low that it might want to avoid losing its first game just in case.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas.../7649318/big-east-tournament-primer-watch-msg

 

[bearcat jeff]

“USF and Cincinnati are still trying to make up for poor non-conference performance,” Palm said. “Cincinnati is in better shape because of some high quality wins. They also have a draw that makes it unlikely they’ll take another bad loss, which is probably the only thing that could really hurt them.

“I’d feel better about USF if the beat the Irish. They’re in deep trouble if they don’t even play the Irish.”

http://www.zagsblog.com/2012/03/05/...east-defensive-player-of-the-year/#more-68882

 

[ralph1950]

Did Oral Roberts and Drexell knock 2 bubble teams out by losing last night? Dick Vitale said on Mike and Mike this morning that Drexell deserves to be in based on their 20 game win streak ( 63 in RPI better than UC).

Oral Roberts is RPI #38 with a 25-7 record.

If it comes down to Xavier and Oral Roberts for the 68th spot would the selection committee not pick the team that won by 22 points at the Cintas Center? That team would be Oral Roberts.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

I stated awhile ago when we had 4 games left and the question was how many wins in the last 4 would we need to make the dance. Forget about how many we need the goal is to win them all. Same with the BET. Kick the door down to the NCAA by winning them all. That said, I know we are already in but I want to win our first BET.

 

[User Name:]

Did Oral Roberts and Drexell knock 2 bubble teams out by losing last night? Dick Vitale said on Mike and Mike this morning that Drexell deserves to be in based on their 20 game win streak ( 63 in RPI better than UC).

Oral Roberts is RPI #38 with a 25-7 record.

If it comes down to Xavier and Oral Roberts for the 68th spot would the selection committee not pick the team that won by 22 points at the Cintas Center? That team would be Oral Roberts.

No because Bobinski is on the committee and X was missing their players that game. The committee takes all that into account

Bobinski will somehow get X into the Tourney. Mark my words

 

[ralph1950]

No because Bobinski is on the committee and X was missing their players that game. The committee takes all that into account

Bobinski will somehow get X into the Tourney. Mark my words

They take injuries into account, not suspensions. Injuries cannot be avoided, suspensions can. If it comes down to X and Oral Roberts for the last spot the committee has to pick Oral Roberts. There is no justification to pick X over Oral Roberts when Oral Roberts beat them by 22 on their own court.

 

[User Name:]

They take injuries into account, not suspensions. Injuries cannot be avoided, suspensions can. If it comes down to X and Oral Roberts for the last spot the committee has to pick Oral Roberts. There is no justification to pick X over Oral Roberts when Oral Roberts beat them by 22 on their own court.

Could care less about X and I wish that was the case, but the committee absolutely takes suspensions into account when deciding teams. Oral Roberts has played no one

 

[TheLongHaul]

They take injuries into account, not suspensions. Injuries cannot be avoided, suspensions can. If it comes down to X and Oral Roberts for the last spot the committee has to pick Oral Roberts. There is no justification to pick X over Oral Roberts when Oral Roberts beat them by 22 on their own court.

They look at the overall resume, not head to head.

 

[TheLongHaul]

Could care less about X and I wish that was the case, but the committee absolutely takes suspensions into account when deciding teams. Oral Roberts has played no one

I thought I read that they didn't take suspensions into account.

 

[ralph1950]

Could care less about X and I wish that was the case, but the committee absolutely takes suspensions into account when deciding teams. Oral Roberts has played no one

You be wrong. They consider injuries but do not take suspensions into account.

 

[bearcat jeff]

You be wrong. They consider injuries but do not take suspensions into account.

I look at the committee like a jury. There are things they aren't suppose to take in account but they are humans with bias and opinion.

 

[User Name:]

You be wrong. They consider injuries but do not take suspensions into account.

They arent supposed to but they do. . An X loss to Horrible Hawaii and Oral Roberts aren't going to look nearly as bad in their eyes because they will see that X had their players suspended. That and Bobinski is on the committee. Why are we talking about an irrelevant mid major team like X??

I look at the committee like a jury. There are things they aren't suppose to take in account but they are humans with bias and opinion.

Said much better than I did Bearcat Jeff

 

[ralph1950]

They arent supposed to but they do. . An X loss to Horrible Hawaii and Oral Roberts aren't going to look nearly as bad in their eyes because they will see that X had their players suspended. That and Bobinski is on the committee. Why are we talking about an irrelevant mid major team like X??



Said much better than I did Bearcat Jeff

Doug Gotlieb said on College Basketball Live last night that Oral Roberts deserves be in Tourney.

 

[ucswais]

My 2 cents...

Oral Roberts is not even in consideration. Their resume is awful.
That has very little to do with Xavier who is still on the fence.

How they handle suspensions will be interesting. I believe some of the bad losses (Hawaii?) came with Lyons and Tu back.

The biggest problem X has is it's 6-10 record against the top 100. That's pretty bad even compared to the other fringe teams. No marquee win at the top either (0-3 vs t25).

 

[User Name:]

My 2 cents...

Oral Roberts is not even in consideration. Their resume is awful.
That has very little to do with Xavier who is still on the fence.

How they handle suspensions will be interesting. I believe some of the bad losses (Hawaii?) came with Lyons and Tu back.

The biggest problem X has is it's 6-10 record against the top 100. That's pretty bad even compared to the other fringe teams. No marquee win at the top either (0-3 vs t25).

The only reason X is even being considered still is because of their wins at Vanderbilt, Purdue, and us. Other than that, they don't have any marquee wins to hang their hat on. Well, that and Bobinski is on the committee.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Teams that should be in: West Virginia
Work left to do: Connecticut, South Florida, Seton Hall


If there is a theme to today's minimal Bubble Watch updates, it's this: Fringe-ish bubble teams that had to beat bad first-round tournament opponents did so. Connecticut and Seton Hall fit neatly into this category. They have differing chances of making the tournament at this point; UConn's numbers place it well above the most desperate bubble areas, but Seton Hall is more tenuous than that. In any case, both won Tuesday night (UConn over DePaul, Seton Hall over Providence). We'll see whether those non-losses can morph into real live wins as the week rolls on.

West Virginia [19-12 (9-9), RPI: 40, SOS: 11] Things looked shaky for a while there. Between Jan. 25 and Feb. 24, the Mountaineers lost seven of nine in Big East play, punctuated by a home loss to Marquette and a gleefully dancing Buzz Williams. But WVU bounced back in the final week, handling DePaul and then getting one of the bigger wins of the season at South Florida. Those two victories got them back to .500 in Big East play, 8-7 away from Morgantown, and 4-7 against the top 50. The Mountaineers aren't entirely safe yet, but odds are the worst that could happen this week is a loss to Connecticut, and they should be fine either way.

Connecticut [19-12 (8-10), RPI: 33, SOS: 3] There's nothing like Tuesday afternoon Big East tournament action to push a team over the top, huh? OK, so maybe not. Still, UConn's easy win over DePaul was a solid step forward for this talented but frustrating bunch, at least in so far as the Huskies didn't drop a game to an obviously inferior team, like they did when they lost at Providence last week. In avoiding the upset and 200ish RPI loss, Connecticut shored up a resume that should be enough to get it in the tournament almost regardless of what happens in the second round against West Virginia on Wednesday. No, this team hasn't looked much like a tourney squad in recent weeks, and no, its profile is hardly overwhelming. But on this brutal bubble, a squad with five top-50 wins and a top-five strength of schedule isn't really going to be in much jeopardy when the committee digs in Sunday afternoon.

South Florida [19-12 (12-6), RPI: 44, SOS: 27] If South Florida doesn't find its way into the tournament Sunday, it may have Saturday's home loss to West Virginia to thank. The Mountaineers' 50-44 grinder of a win robbed USF of another big addition to its already-gaudy Big East record (12-6), but more importantly it resulted in another loss to a top-50 RPI team, of which USF already owns nine. The Bulls have won just one of their 10 games against the top 50 this season (last week's big win at Louisville). Their RPI and schedule figures look solid, but the 5-10 road-neutral mark and thoroughly mediocre performance against top teams keeps it very much in need of an advance into the thick of the Big East tournament, up to and including a win over No. 3-seed Notre Dame on Thursday.

Seton Hall [20-11 (8-10), RPI: 50, SOS: 61] The Pirates were in a situation similar to UConn's Tuesday night: A win in their first-round Big East matchup would hardly qualify as marquee. Rather, the Pirates' matchup with Providence was merely about loss avoidance -- about staying in similar bubble position and advancing in time to make a move Wednesday -- and Seton Hall's blowout victory most certainly did the job. Unlike UConn, though, the Pirates don't have the luxury of a top-five SOS figure or a top-40 RPI. As such, they're in much more tenuous bubble position heading into the Big East's second round. A win over Louisville would be massive. A loss, and the Pirates' fate is anyone's guess.

Locks: Syracuse, Marquette, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame, Cincinnati

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bubblewatch

 

[ralph1950]

I am rooting big time for UConn today to knock WVU out of the NCAA Tourney.

Seton Hall's 30 point win should put them in.

 

[dp3113]

I am rooting big time for UConn today to knock WVU out of the NCAA Tourney.

Seton Hall's 30 point win should put them in.

based on their regular season outcome- i think wvu has a much better chance to beat cuse than uconn- and will be more motivated. thus, ill be rooting for wvu.