Thoughts following Thursday, March 13

First of all, I still haven't posted the link to the bloggers Big East Awards (the ones you saw earlier were my personal votes). Here is that link.

Explain something to me. ESPN said yesterday that the winner of Syracuse-Villanova was definitely in. Today, when Villanova lost a game to Georgetown, an elite team with whom they were competitive in for most of the game, suddenly Villanova’s bubble chances were fading. Any other questions as to why I don’t rely on ESPN for analysis?

I finally changed my stance regarding Syracuse due to a blogpost from Gary Parrish, linked here. I will be replacing them with South Alabama, just because I can’t bring myself to put either St. Joe’s or Arkansas in. If by some chance Syracuse does make it in… I hate each and every one of you college basketball fans who talked me out of selecting them.

Several teams bubbles burst today – Maryland losing to Boston College, Florida losing to Alabama, Texas Tech losing to Oklahoma St., Massachusetts losing to Charlotte, UAB losing to Tulsa, and New Mexico losing to Utah. Each of those teams are officially off my bubble – I am certain that none of them will make the tourney.

Other teams merely hurt their seed. Arizona St. could have used the win over USC, but instead they’ll probably have to settle for an 8 or 9 seed. Dayton is still in following their close loss to Xavier, but they will be sweating on Sunday. Villanova and Oregon are in that same situation as Dayton – probably in, but not certain, following losses to Georgetown and Washington St., respectively. Baylor will probably drop a line or two following an embarrassing loss to Colorado, but I still won’t say they are a bubble team.

UNLV almost suffered a crushing loss to TCU, one that assuredly would have dropped them from the tournament. They survived, but another close win to a bad team on their home court might cause the committee to rethink them.

So in reality, I have on my bubble what you see here, plus 3 teams: Arkansas, St. Joe’s, and Syracuse. I also have a list of teams that could potentially be at-large bids with runs to the conference final: Virginia Tech, Oklahoma St. and Nebraska. Beyond that… nothing. Nada. No other team is really deserving at this point. I suppose if pressed for a fourth team, I would say VCU.

In any event, seed list to follow soon. Hopefully, I will produce a bracket Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon.