Another reason to stop the “games to watch” articles is that I need to start on my horrible bracketology picks.   One of these years, I will figure the seeding piece of this out.   And I am so biased at this point, I don’t know that I can correctly predict what the committee does.

But here are some of my thoughts (although I reserve the right to backtrack on some of these statements after I get a chance to look more thoroughly at team’s profiles).

I am tired of how some of the media bracketologists are saying that Syracuse are still in the field.

• Teams with much better RPIs were left out because they had a 200+ non-conference strength of schedule (they are 221).
• They played three non-conference games away from home – losing the only true road game to Wisconsin by 17, and their two neutral court games by 14 to South Carolina and 2 to Connecticut.
• They lost to St. John’s and Georgetown at home.
• Their only road wins are to North Carolina State (who fired their coach) and Clemson (who lost to everyone in the last minute).
• Boston College only won two games in the ACC this year – one of them was by 15 points against Syracuse.
• Their RPI is currently 84 – I get that it is not the best metric, but I only need 36 at large teams.
• I get that they beat Duke, Virginia and Florida State.  But Indiana beat Kansas and North Carolina (two of the likely #1 seeds) and has a slightly better RPI – 79, and the experts say the Hoosiers need to get to the Big 10 final to have a chance.  I agree with the assessment on Indiana – which is why it baffles me that Syracuse would be in after going one and done in the ACC tourney.

OK – I got that off my chest – I feel better now.    Other bubble thoughts

• The Big 10 bubble just got confusing – Illinois and Iowa probably played their way out of the tournament by both losing by 20+ points.   But did Indiana somehow put themselves back into bubble consideration by beating Iowa?    I will think about it more after they play Wisconsin.
• ACC bubble teams didn’t really help themselves either – Wake Forest also lost their quarterfinal game on Wednesday
• They might not have been the most impressive wins – but Pac 12 bubble teams USC and Cal keep winning their conference tourney games (although USC might have too much in front of them tonight with UCLA).
• TCU managed to upset #1 Kansas – could they end up being a bid stealer with two more victories in the Big 12.
• Congratulations to Xavier – they needed to show they could beat someone other than DePaul since they lost one of their stars to injury.   They did that today against Butler – a team who will be in the field.   Xavier looks like they punched their ticket to the dance.