The bids are going like hotcakes now that the conference season has entered it's final week. Let's stick with bracket talk today and I will have a fully updated LOCKBOX ready tomorrow and it will look quite different than any before it.
The bottom of the bracket seemed a little less confusing to me this week. The last two slots were pretty tough, though. I took Georgia Tech and Drexel over a host of contenders including Georgia, Alabama, Kansas State, West Virginia, Syracuse, and bunch of other fringe Bubble Boys. Georgia Tech will have to finish strong to stay in, and Drexel got in on the strength of an astounding THIRTEEN road wins. Plus, the Dragons have a rather robust seven Top 100 RPI wins. For comparison's sake, West Virginia has four and Kansas State has five. Georgia and Alabama have eight each, but both have been dreadful on the road and 'Bama is 6-8 in conference. Syracuse's profile is close, but the Dragon's road warrior badge of honor puts them over the top for now. They will probably need to run deep in the CAA Tourney to get ultimately get IN.
Multi-Bid Conference Breakdown
ACC (7): North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, Maryland, Boston College, Georgia Tech
Big East (6): Georgetown, Pitt, Louisville, Marquette, Villanova, Notre Dame
Pac-10 (6): UCLA, Washington State, Southern Cal, Oregon, Arizona, Stanford
Big Ten (6): Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue
SEC (4): Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky
Big XII (4): Texas A&M, Kansas, Texas, Texas Tech
Missouri Valley (3): Southern Illinois, Creighton, Missouri State
Mountain West (3): UNLV, Air Force, BYU
Colonial (3): VCU, Old Dominion, Drexel
There are also a whole gaggle of updates in the One Stop Shop. There are a smattering of other teams that have locked up tourney bracket slots, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. I will also try to clean up the game times.
Conference tourney action begins tomorrow in the Big South, Horizon, and Ohio Valley!
Tonight's GOI
--Georgetown at Syracuse. The Orange finish with this one and at Villanova on Saturday. Even a split would make their resume a lot more palatable. A sweep likely gets them IN.
--Kansas at Oklahoma. Jayhawks lost to Texas A&M in their only meeting, so they must win out and hope A&M loses at Texas.
