Monday, March 09, 2009

Bracket Update 3/9

It's wild, wild stuff at the bottom of today's bracket. I think there are STILL 8 spots in danger, but I took Penn State, Minnesota, Michigan, Creighton, St. Mary's, New Mexico, Florida, and Arizona. There are a gaggle of teams I could easily swap out including South Carolina, Miami-FL, UNLV, San Diego State and Maryland. There were a number of others on the board, too.

At the top, I think Michigan State has earned a 1 if they win the Big Televen tourney. They have a full three more top 50 RPI wins than any other team in the country as of today.

Multi-Bid Conference Breakdown
Big Ten (8): Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Penn State
Big East (7): UConn, Pitt, Louisville, Villanova, Marquette, Syracuse, West Virginia
ACC (6): North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State, Boston College
Big 12 (6): Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M
Pac-10 (5): Washington, UCLA, California, Arizona State, Arizona
Mountain West (3): Utah, BYU, New Mexico
SEC (3): LSU, Tennessee, Florida
Atlantic 10 (2): Xavier, Dayton
Missouri Valley (2): Northern Iowa, Creighton
West Coast (2): Gonzaga, St. Mary's

I made some adjustments to the Lockbox, too. No longer are blue teams "win games they should," but more "needs to win a game two to feel secure." These teams are not likely to miss, but let's face it, Wisconsin, Dayton, BC, Ohio State...these teams will not sleep easy if they lose their first tourney game. They are likely IN, but can seal the deal with one more victory. The Bubble is still at 8 slots today, although a couple of teams could fall back onto it with poor tourney showings. It's a huge Bubble for this late in the game.