Who's in the Big Dance

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

This thread is devoted to the run-up to selection Sunday and features those teams with a definite invite based on their winning their conference tournament.

The first NCAA bid comes from the Big South Conference as Liberty with a 15-20 record upsets Charleston Southern, 87-76.

Another bid goes to the regular season winner of the Ivy league which does not hold a Tournament, Harvard. The Crimson won the title outright over Princeton as the Tigers were upset by Brown, 80-67 last night in Providence.

Optimistic · Unread post by **Optimistic** » 11 years ago

Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont have also had their cards punched.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

With a 15-3 run Wichita State in the closing minutes produced a thriller, but Creighton finally prevailed, 68-65 and gets the Missouri Valley automatic bid. Now will Wichita State get a NCAA bid with a 26-8 record?

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

they should be in around an 11 seed seems to be the consensus

ramfan85 · Unread post by **ramfan85** » 11 years ago

Obadiah wrote:With a 15-3 run Wichita State in the closing minutes produced a thriller, but Creighton finally prevailed, 68-65 and gets the Missouri Valley automatic bid. Now will Wichita State get a NCAA bid with a 26-8 record?

This could be interesting. I don't know how the MV bids are annually compared to the A10. But, if they don't usually get as many bids, and are snubbed, would they consider changing conferences? (If we're at all interested in them, of course.) Just a thought. I'd love to add them.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Shockers should be in.

bigappleram · Unread post by **bigappleram** » 11 years ago

the answer to the title of the thread ..... next year.....US

Go Rhody!

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

Middle Tennessee State loses in the conference semis and could steal a bid (top 50 RPI)

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Rhody once had a top 50 RPI on Selection Sunday and wasn't even in the Last 4 Out, if you look at how the NIT was seeded. I think Middle Tennessee is NIT bound.

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

they are 28-5, Lunardi has them in the first 4 out currently

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

ATP, you are close on that one. URI had an RPI in 2010 of 40. It is was the highest RPI team not invited to the Dance that year. As in all years, there were teams in the 100's and 200's who got automatic bids because they won their conference tournament.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

That RPI ended up being the most bogus 40 I've ever seen.

Rhody never came close to passing the eye test. Baron tried to set up the OOC schedule to help that number, and he succeeded. The problem was, his team blew too many league games in February to mediocre teams. And lost the close ones to the good teams. As usual.

At the end of that regular season, Rhody was playing like a team with a 100 RPI.

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

Liberty's RPI is closer to 300 than 250

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

They are going to be slaughtered in their 1st round game.

Remember the year we got killed by UNC? What was it, 120-60 or thereabouts?

That's what the score might be in that one.

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

They'll be in one of the first 4 games at Dayton

reef · Unread post by **reef** » 11 years ago

I hope Virginia gets in I have a future on them

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

One amazing game yesterday was Northeastern coming from behind to beat George Mason, 69-67, in the CAA semifinals. At one point in first half, Northeastern trailed GMU by 24 points. The Huskies cut that margin by half at intermission and then totally dominated play in the second half. Northeastern now plays James Madison for the CAA bid tonight at 7 PM.

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 11 years ago

What is your guys opinions on auto-bids?

I'll be honest, I'm not really much of a fan of the auto-bid in the NCAA Tournament, and even less of a fan of an auto-bid going out for the NIT. This year you could very likely see 12-16 autobids going out for NIT teams.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

Some agreement here. My contention, if you want to keep the auto bid, you should expand the field because you are not getting the best 64 teams into the tourney. But the NCAA has an image problem here and the solution is not clearcut which explains their tepid increase of the field from 64 to 65, then 68.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Losing the auto-bid eliminates the excitement and engineered-in importance of the conference tournaments. The conf tournaments are not going away, so the only solution I see is to expand the field so that we really do have the top50 teams in the tournament or more. I'd like to see the field expanded a bit more.

Since the auto-bid system has been in place for NIT, I don't remember many years when too many teams got in that way, but this year may be the first where we see more given the unpredictability observed in the conf tournaments so far.

adam914 · Unread post by **adam914** » 11 years ago

I definitely understand the argument about the auto-bid making it not the best teams in the country, its hard to argue with that. But I like the auto-bid just because it is those teams getting in that usually leads to some of the best upsets that make the NCAA tournament what it is. I would never want to lose that.

STC · Unread post by **STC** » 11 years ago

I LOVE the autobids! Yeah, many aren't deserving but it makes it more interesting when they do pull an upset.

Those play in games SUCK!!!!! Just AWFUL! and the worst part is how it is considered the 'first round' and the round of 64 is the 'second round'. In the words of Sir Charles, thats turrible!

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

So they should just expand this fake first round to one consisting of 16 teams where the winners would feed 2 teams into each regional bracket against the top 2 seeds. There should be no at-large teams forced to square off in this fake first round. Only the worst 16 auto-bids from the 1-bid conferences would have to play-in to face a 1 or 2 seed in the REAL first round.

Nobody can argue that the auto-bid teams out of the bottom 16 conferences deserve to BOUNCE out an at-large team with much higher rating and chance to advance. At large teams should always play in the REAL first round.

adam914 · Unread post by **adam914** » 11 years ago

Apologies if this was already posted but I didnt see it. I think this is an interesting idea.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... -and-wrong

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

so you would end up punishing a team that just won multiple games in multiple days but reward a team that lost?

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 11 years ago

If Stony Brook hasn't won their playoff, despite three years winning
the league regular season, shame on them and their coach.
THREE times? That's CFL territory.

adam914 · Unread post by **adam914** » 11 years ago

twisted3829 wrote:so you would end up punishing a team that just won multiple games in multiple days but reward a team that lost?

You wouldnt really be punishing them, they'd still have a chance to beat them again and get in anyway. With the way it is now you are potentially punshing a team that won for months in a row in favor of one that one for a few days in a row.

twisted3829 · Unread post by **twisted3829** » 11 years ago

then I could see teams bombing early taking the 2 or 3 days rest then only having to play 1 game to make the tourney

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 11 years ago

The BCS cartel would love if the best 64 teams made the tournament.....how many non-football schools would make the tournament....

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

So far six #1 seeds have been eliminated in tournament play so far:

Niagara - MAAC
High Point-Big South
Robert Morris - NEC
Middle Tennessee - Sun Belt
Stony Brook - America East
Mercer -Atlantic Sun

And at the half, #1 seed in CAA, Northeastern, is in trouble, down 22 points.

#1 seeds that have won auto bid are:

Creighton - MVC
Belmont - OVC

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 11 years ago

Unfair that Stony Brook, the #1 seed in the conference tournament, had to play a conference tournament road game against Albany at Albany.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 11 years ago

Davidson is in after beating College of Charleston

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

I agree, ace. Why is it that mostly eastern schools and conferences play their tournaments at either sites of the higher seed or stage the whole tournament at a conference member's arena? Outside the East, only the Big South uses that approach. All the others use neutral sites.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

#6 seed W. Kentucky beats Florida International, 65-63, to get the Sun Belt automatic bid.

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

Another #1 seed falls as Northeastern loses to James Madison, 70-57, in the CAA Final. JMU you may recall was one of the few teams that URI beat up at last year's Christmas tournament at Central Florida. And one year later, they're in the Dance

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

Anyone watching the Iona-Manhattan game? The refs just gave the Manhattan coach a tech for being on the court. His feet were just over the side line, a common occurrence. These guys would have a field day T'ing up Dan Hurley. No question an excessive call to give Iona some momentum.

The Dude · Unread post by **The Dude** » 11 years ago

All I know is filling out a bracket or even brackets this year is going to be a NIGHTMARE!!! There are no front runners for this one folks. Good luck!

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

#6 seed Iona gets the MAAC automatic bid by beating Manhattan, 60-57.

Unread post by **TruePoint** » 11 years ago

Glad for Iona. Have a couple buddies that went there.

rodfromcranston · Unread post by **rodfromcranston** » 11 years ago

Gotta love it.
Jon Rothstein, CBS commentator, is already bitching about
Gonzaga being a one seed.
Actually says New Mexico deserves to be ahead of them.
That's a smokescreen for a BCS lover.
I love watching Kelly Olynyk. This guy does it all. Somehow, they said he'd only be a midround draft choice, if he were to
come out after his junior season.
They showed Danny Ainge at the game in Vegas, as was Pat Riley.
Love to see Olynyk on the Celtics.

reef · Unread post by **reef** » 11 years ago

Love this Gonzaga team also, I think this is the yr Few gets them to the final 4

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 11 years ago

rodfromcranston wrote:Gotta love it.
Jon Rothstein, CBS commentator, is already bitching about
Gonzaga being a one seed.
Actually says New Mexico deserves to be ahead of them.
That's a smokescreen for a BCS lover.
I love watching Kelly Olynyk. This guy does it all. Somehow, they said he'd only be a midround draft choice, if he were to
come out after his junior season.
They showed Danny Ainge at the game in Vegas, as was Pat Riley.
Love to see Olynyk on the Celtics.

The sad thing is that he has been bitching about Gonzaga for God know's how many weeks. I remember reading a tweet from him probably around at the beginning of last week saying the same thing about how New Mexico deserved to be #1 over Gonzaga.

RF1 · Unread post by **RF1** » 11 years ago

Obadiah wrote:So far six #1 seeds have been eliminated in tournament play so far:

Niagara - MAAC
High Point-Big South
Robert Morris - NEC
Middle Tennessee - Sun Belt
Stony Brook - America East
Mercer -Atlantic Sun

And at the half, #1 seed in CAA, Northeastern, is in trouble, down 22 points.

#1 seeds that have won auto bid are:

Creighton - MVC
Belmont - OVC

That is bad news for teams hoping for an at large NIT bid. Keep in mind that every regular season conference champ that does not make the NCAA gets an automatic bid to the NIT. With Northeastern losing last night, seven of the NIT's 32 bids are now taken.

ace · Unread post by **ace** » 11 years ago

RF1 wrote:
Obadiah wrote:So far six #1 seeds have been eliminated in tournament play so far:

Niagara - MAAC
High Point-Big South
Robert Morris - NEC
Middle Tennessee - Sun Belt
Stony Brook - America East
Mercer -Atlantic Sun

And at the half, #1 seed in CAA, Northeastern, is in trouble, down 22 points.

#1 seeds that have won auto bid are:

Creighton - MVC
Belmont - OVC

That is bad news for teams hoping for an at large NIT bid. Keep in ind that every regular season conference champ that does not make the NCAA gets an automatic bid to the NIT. With Northeastern losing last night, seven of the NIT's 32 bids are now taken.

That's what kept Wagner out last year... still a little bitter about that

rjsuperfly66 · Unread post by **rjsuperfly66** » 11 years ago

It looks like the NIT teams in the most trouble in the present moment are Detroit, Richmond, Indiana St., St. John's, Wymoing, St. Joseph's, and Washington.

That is using the bracket matrix March 11th NIT projection of their remaining 6 and 7 seeds (Middle Tennessee is predicted a 2 seed so they aren't in that bottom group of automatics).

If you haven't checked bracket projections from that site, a must-see. They basically combine all of the brackets (so Lunardi, Palm, etc.) to come up with a combination average for teams, usually best for trying to figure out who is on the outside looking in.

rambone 78 · Unread post by **rambone 78** » 11 years ago

66, I've been looking at that for a few years, when we were NIT bound. They are usually pretty accurate.

This year, haven't looked. Next year, we might be in PC's situation.

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 11 years ago

Better to be blown out in the first round of the NCAA's than to win the NIT !!

Obadiah · Unread post by **Obadiah** » 11 years ago

Last night's Gonzaga win over St. Mary's, 65-51, in the West Coast finals, brings to ten the number of schools who have had their dance card punched.

Tonight three more automatic bids will be determined:

Mount St. Mary's vs. LIU in the NEC finals. On ESPN2 at 7 PM.

North Dakota State vs. South Dakota State in the Summit League finals. On ESPN2 at 9 PM.

Wright State vs. Valparaiso in the Horizon League finals. ON ESPN at 9 PM.

Unread post by **ATPTourFan** » 11 years ago

Love me some championship week!!

Ramulous · Unread post by **Ramulous** » 11 years ago

Kudos to old friend Matt Brady for getting James Madison to the tournament.....at the expense of old friend Bill Coen.

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