Monday, March 10, 2008

Bubble, In

By my calculations there are still 10 bids that are still up in the air. This can shrink if San Diego beats Gonzaga tonight or if any of the other locks lose their tournament. Those 10 spots are currently held by the below list of teams. I'll summarize what they need to do to hang on to that spot.

1. Illinois State - pray that they are not penalized for the slaughter that happened yesterday. Their season is over so there's not much they can do.

2. Kentucky - avoid an embarrassing loss in against the winner of the Mississippi-Georgia game. I think they are probably in even if they lose that game based on their 12-4 conference record

3. Arkansas - luckily got a first round bye but will probably have to play Vanderbilt. Win that and they are a lock. Lose and it's close.

4. Arizona - the 7th seed in the PAC-10 all they need is to beat 0-18 Oregon State. A win there and they are in.

5. Texas A&M - losers of 5 of their last 8 they need to at least beat Iowa State and then a good showing against K-State should be enough.

6. Arizona State - they NEED to beat USC. Their RPI and SOS is awful and unless they get that one I think they are on the outside looking in.

7. Syracuse - a first round matchup against Villanova is an elimination game. Even if they win they might need to beat Georgetown in the second round.

8. Mississippi - as mentioned above they would need to beat Georgia and then it's a possible elimination game against Kentucky. Mississippi needs that game more than Kentucky does.

9. Dayton - two games, it's as simple as that. Beat St. Louis and upset Xavier, which is easier said than done, and they are in. Their second best player who led them to a 13-1 start should be back for the A-10 tourney. For those of you who remember VCU from last year...Dayton is my VCU this year.

10. Ohio State. Simple. Beat Michigan State and they're in. Lose and they'll be leap frogged by a team currently out.

Tomorrow I'll highlight some teams outside looking in.

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