Selection Show Live Blog

6:41 - But only 297 points - same as last year.

6:38 - 65/65! 65/65!

6:30 - Syracuse or Illinois as the 3? Also, SMC is out - Gonzaga hasn't shown up yet.

6:21 - Memphis in the west? Also, I would have swapped Washington and Purdue. Also, Cal was not held accountable for 150+ losses. Also, I didn't mention, but Siena as a 9 shocked me. As did Utah as a 5.

6:17 - ARIZONA!

6:01 - I was scared that they were going to commercial break before showing us all the #1s. 3 BIG EAST. Also, Joe Lunardi conspiracy theory dispelled?

5:56 - Calipari is stupid. You aren't getting a one. And you aren't fooling anyone by saying "who me? Complain?"

5:48 - Here we go. I made my bracket over on the NCAA website - I had to swap Clemson and UCLA, and Minnesota and Marquette. By the way, Arizona is in. I meant in.
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FINAL Seed List

1: North Carolina, Louisville, Pitt, Connecticut
2: Michigan St, Memphis, Oklahoma, Duke
3: Villanova, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois
4: Syracuse, Florida St, Wake Forest, Purdue
5: Xavier, Washington, Arizona St, Texas
6: West Virginia, Clemson, UCLA, Gonzaga
7: Ohio St, Butler, BYU, Minnesota
8: Oklahoma St, Marquette, Tennessee, Utah
9: Michigan, Texas A&M, California, LSU
10: Arizona, Wisconsin, Southern Cal, Boston College
11: Maryland, Siena, Dayton, Utah St.
12: Temple, Cleveland St, Mississippi St, Western Kentucky
13: Northern Iowa, Virginia Commonwealth, North Dakota St, Portland St.
14: Akron, Radford, Chattanooga, Binghamton
15: Morgan St, Stephen F. Austin, Cal State - Northridge, American
16: E. Tennessee St, Robert Morris, Cornell, Morehead St, Alabama St.

First Four Out: Penn St, Northwestern, Baylor, Creighton
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I'm back for the big finish

After a month long hiatus, I'm back with a liveblog of my Selection Sunday. I will actually post a bracket.

4:41 - As I type up the post, Texas starts to slide. A little... no, they stay on the 5 line.

4:24 - Fine, Boston College and Southern Cal also on the 10 line. (Almost forgot about USC again) Since overall seed only matters for the top 16, and I did the bottom 5 (+2) lines the other day, I just have to insert Mississippi St. in.

4:19 - Arizona and Wisconsin on the 10 line. Hear me Joe?? ARIZONA ON THE 10 LINE.

4:18 - Check that, losses make a difference if teams are close. Screw you, Utah St.

4:16 - Fine, losses does make a slight difference. LSU on the 9 line.

4:13 - BC is not, neither is Maryland. Nor Wisconsin. Which means Cal is. So last spot on the 9 line goes to Arizona or LSU.

4:11 - So is Texas A&M.

4:07 - Michigan is on the 9 line

4:04 - Back to the 9 line.

4:03 - Crap, finally remembered lunch. Also, Arizona has a better resume this year than last.

3:54 - Teams that go 5-11 in conference don't get at-larges. So MY last conflict is Dayton vs. Penn St. Which I announced to my friend 5 minutes wasn't a conflict, because Dayton was so much better. Yea, looking again, Dayton is going to beat out Penn St. Time to finish seeding.

3:50 - Northwestern is out, because they didn't schedule anyone. Creighton is out because they suck AND didn't schedule anyone. Last 12 games is not a reason to put a mid-major in.

3:48 - I revisited Arizona. I'm confident that they will be in over Wisconsin. End of that discussion.

3:45 - Oops, I forgot Southern Cal. So thats 1 spot left for the five mentioned.

3:40 - In reality, I have 3 spots for 6 teams - Creighton, Penn St, Northwestern, Maryland, Dayton, Baylor. Okay, you're right, Maryland is in - few bad losses with a decent scheduling job.

3:36 - So Lunardi says Minnesota is a last 4 in. So I'm going to take a look at them in a bit. I just reconfirmed that SMC, Auburn, VT, UNLV, SDSU are all out. Therefore, I am down to 13 teams for 10 spots.

3:28 - Utah takes that last spot. I'm going to go the bubble teams now. Out of the 33 teams remaining, 23 are auto bids. So the last 10 spots are going to one of 18 teams.

3:27.5 - Narrowed to Utah vs. Texas A&M
3:27 - If you can't remember, the teams in the running for the last 8 seed - Utah, BC, TAMU, Cal, LSU.

3:24 - Marquette is on the 8 line, and since the lost by 12 on a neutral court to Tennessee, who is in the discussion, Tennessee is ALSO on the 8 line. First SEC team - 8.

3:21 - Oklahoma St. is on the 8 line. Yep. The same Cowboys who were a bubble team just a bit ago.

3:17 - The clock in the SEC championship game has been at 9 seconds for too long. It should be at 5. Arizona and Michigan are the same team, and neither will be wearing white.

3:14 - Onto the 8 line. Teams that will be looked at: A&M, Cal, Marquette, BC, LSU, Oklahoma St, Tennessee, Utah, Arizona, Michigan

3:09 - I'm taking Minnesota. I just talked my friend into giving Minnesota yellow jerseys for the tourney.

3:07 - So is BYU. The final spot is on the 7 line is going to Minnesota, Cal, or Texas A&M

3:01 - Butler and Ohio St. are on the 7 line.

2:54 - 6 line - West Virginia, Gonzaga, UCLA, Clemson. My friend knocked some sense into me with respect to Clemson. 27 point win over Duke, win at Illinois, 7-4 Road record.

2:53 - UCLA, Ohio St, West Virginia, Minnesota, Gonzaga are vying for the 6 line.

2:43 - #20 - Washington, because they won the Pac-10

2:40 - #18 - Xavier, #19 - Arizona St

2:37 - #17 - Texas. The other ones in consideration for the 5 line - ASU, Gonzaga, XU, Washington, Minnesota

2:23 - We just played "Guess how many top 100 games Penn St. and Northwestern scheduled out of conference" Answer: 2. Penn St. lost to URI and Temple, Northwestern beat FSU and lost at Butler.

2:16 - Texas just has too many questionable losses. #15 - Wake Forest #16 - Purdue. Wake was the easy one.

2:11 - Gonzaga and Arizona St are gone because they don't have any big wins, while the other 4 have 2.

2:09 - Here are the candidates for the last two spots in the top 16: Purdue, ASU, Xavier, Wake, Gonzaga, Texas

2:05 - #13 Syracuse, #14 - Florida St

2:03 - #10 - Kansas #11 - Mizzou #12 Illinois

1:57 - Nova is the only thing I'm sure of on the 3 line. Lunardi's bracket has not changed since midnight (conspiracy theory tracking here).

1:50 - Just looked at the committee members. Syracuse = Florida St. Nova is definitely above Illinois

1:44 - Teams in consideration for 3s - Mizzou, Kansas, Gonzaga, Syracuse, Florida St, Nova, Illinois, Wake Forest. My friend - "Syracuse has more wins than anyone in this conversation... except for... oh wait, pretty much everyone"

1:42 - #5 - Michigan St, #6 - Memphis #7 - Oklahoma #8 - Duke. Easier then the 1 seed discussion.

1:34 - Order of 1 seeds: UNC, L'ville, Pitt, UConn. Friend shocked by Michigan State's 13 wins against the top 50. Talk about 2 seeds.

1:30 - I tried to spark discussion about UNC only have 5 top 50 wins. It failed when I looked at the 35 point win basically at Michigan St.

1:25: Long discussion of UConn vs. Memphis. The non-cons decided it: RPI top 100 in NonCon - UConn = 6-0, Memphis = 7-3. UConn gets it.

1:20 - Others in the discussion: UConn, Michigan St, North Carolina, Pitt, Memphis. Check that, Memphis is not a one seed, since their best win is TENNESSEE. Also, South Carolina just got discarded from the bubble pool, once we realized that they have 0 top 50 RPI wins. Florida follows with only 1.

1:17, 5 seconds - Louisville is a one seed. No discussion (well, some, but they are pretty obvious).

1:17 - Sitting in front of the SEC Championship, with lots of dead trees in my lap. Friend with me to provide argument. First order of business - one seed confirmation.
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Seed List needed an update

Too many changes recently to not make this update:

1: Connecticut, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Michigan St.
2: Marquette, Oklahoma, Clemson, Duke
3: Xavier, Illinois, Gonzaga, Louisville
4: Arizona St., West Virginia, Ohio St., Villanova
5: Butler, Syracuse, Memphis, California
6: Wake Forest, Penn St., Georgetown, Missouri
7: Kansas, Tennessee, Purdue, Washington
8: Florida, Davidson, Texas, Minnesota
9: UCLA, Kentucky, Baylor, Utah St.
10: Dayton, Michigan, BYU, UNLV
11: Southern Cal, Miami (FL), Utah, Texas A&M
12: Notre Dame, Oklahoma St, Maryland, Siena
13: Buffalo, Northeastern, Northern Iowa, WKU
14: VMI, Vermont, American, Cornell
15: North Dakota St, Murray St, Stephen F. Austin, Belmont
16:CSU-Northridge, Robert Morris, Alabama St, Play-in (Weber St, Morgan St)
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Well, at least I don't have to worry about finding my way to a tournament game this year...

To address the comments about my last Bracket (and the shame associated):

Connecticut was not a #1 because I expected them to lose to Louisville that night. Which they didn't. And now, they are projected as the top overall seed.

Notre Dame was an 8 because I expected them to beat Louisville, Villanova, Providence, and Cincinnati. Of course, since we dropped the easy one of those four, I now think they'll only beat Louisville out of that group, and that won't keep them in the tournament.

Penn St. - #6 is probably a bit on the high side. 7 or 8 is probably more accurate.

Tennessee was expected to lose at Arkansas. Then I changed my mind shortly after I posted the seed list. And then they did not lose.

I'll try to post an updated bracket... Sunday. Yea, lets go with that.
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Bracketbusters (For real)

Here is the line-up of televised bracketbuster matchups (of which there are 11, not 13... stupid me).

Friday:
VCU @ Nevada - Huzzah for the heroes of yesteryear. Oh, alright, these two are still decent, but they still won't have any meaningful impact on this year's tourney (mainly because they won't be in it).

Illinois St. @ Niagara - I guess I can see why this matchup seemed appealing. Illinois St. was big news for the amount of time they went undefeated, and is still #2 in conference. This should be a good preview of the UNI-Siena game.

Saturday:
Butler @ Davidson - Obvious matchup is obvious to everyone not in Loudonville.

Northern Iowa @ Siena - In retrospect, putting the top team from the MVC here makes more sense than the top team from the CAA. Poor Siena though - if only they could make outside shots.

Utah St. @ St. Mary’s - As predicted, although if you remember I was set to put Utah St. on a cross-country flight until I was swayed by a commenter. I suppose I should remember that people on the East Coast don't give much respect to teams on the other side of the country.

Boise St. @ Portland St. - I figured that neither of these teams would get much respect. I still don't expect them to make it on the 2.


Buffalo @ Vermont - Top MAC team + top America East team. Thats why these two are in this game.

Northeastern @ Wright St. - Northeastern gets a meh matchup, despite being in great position to win the CAA.

UW-Green Bay @ Long Beach St. - Having the second team from the Horizon on TV isn't that surprising, but I didn't have LBSU anywhere near a prime slot.

George Mason @ Creighton - I picked the wrong CAA team for this one - I suppose ESPN is banking on George Mason's Final Four popularity continuing.

Miami (OH) @ Evansville - As I said earlier - Evansville made the TV slot because they were news earlier in the year, supposedly being this year's Drake.
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New Seed List (Finally)

Perhaps I should bite my tongue more often. With two unfortunate losses, Wake Forest has dropped off of the one seed line, and Oklahoma has taken that spot. Lots of movement elsewhere – my Irish have dropped to the eight line, and that’s probably the best they can fair. Memphis has proved me wrong, and jumps up to the five line. They could climb higher, if they go undefeated in conference. Penn State’s shocker in Lansing has forced me to consider that they may be among the best in the Big 10, earning them a spot on the six line. Meanwhile, the top SEC team (Tennessee) has been pushed down to the eight line. This is what happens when you don’t win games. Also, an incredible six Big East teams on the top four seed lines. This is what happens when none of your losses are counted as "bad".

1: North Carolina, Duke, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma
2: Connecticut, Marquette, Michigan St, Wake Forest
3: Butler, Xavier, Louisville, West Virginia
4: Gonzaga, Clemson, Illinois, Syracuse
5: Ohio St, Memphis, Georgetown, California
6: Arizona St, Villanova, Penn St, Kansas
7: Texas, Baylor, Purdue, Washington
8: Tennessee, Florida, Davidson, Notre Dame
9: Missouri, Minnesota, Kentucky, UNLV
10: Utah St., Dayton, Michigan, UCLA
11: BYU, Oklahoma St, Texas A&M, Kansas St
12: Southern Cal, Maryland, LSU, Siena
13: Buffalo, Northeastern, Northern Iowa, Western Kentucky
14: VMI, Vermont, American, Cornell
15: North Dakota St, Murray St, Stephen F. Austin, Belmont
16: Cal State – Northridge, Robert Morris, Alabama St, Weber St vs. Morgan St.

First Five Out: Utah, Siena (at-large), South Carolina, Virginia Tech, UAB
Next Four Out: Northwestern, San Diego St, Miami (FL), Arizona, Providence

Moving In: Washington, Dayton, LSU, Southern Cal
Moving Out: Miami (FL), St. Mary's, Florida St, Wisconsin, Utah
Moving Up: Connecticut, West Virginia, Memphis
Moving Down: Georgetown, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Oklahoma St,

Bracket: Tonight
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