In the ACC, the teams that needed victories the most so far have won. Louisville took down Florida State earlier in the day, and Notre Dame just came from down 21 to beat Virginia Tech.
On the other side of the bubble, is one of the craziest things that I have seen. Arizona State reached 3rd in the AP Poll and actually received some first place votes. Oklahoma reached 4th in the AP Poll just 7 weeks ago. Then, both teams went on losing streaks – which have led both teams to finish 8-10 in their conferences.
Today, Arizona State lost 97-85 to Colorado in the first round of the Pac 12 conference tournament. Then, Oklahoma lost 71-60 to Oklahoma State in the first round of the Big 12 conference tournament. And so now we wait – can two teams that at one point were considered top 5 teams actually not even make the tournament. While I haven’t done my ranking of teams, I have a serious problem with taking a team that went 8-11 in conference.
The Big 12 has a really good reputation – so maybe an 8-11 team from that conference can get in. But can you really take an 8-11 team from the Pac 12 and then not take any combination of USC, UCLA, Utah and Stanford (who finished 3+ games ahead in the standings). Oregon and Washington were 2 games ahead in the standings. At this point, even 8-10 Colorado has an argument that they are the better team.
To be fair, I think the Pac 12 gets a bad wrap. People point to Arizona State’s victories or Kansas and Xavier as why they belong in. So – what does that say about the rest of the Pac 12 that they are dominating the Sun Devils.
I will also argue for Nebraska who went 13-5 in the Big 10. People will say that they needed to win their first conference tournament game and they lost big. But lets remember – they lost big to Michigan – who then went on to beat Michigan State and Purdue for the Big 10 title. I will be shocked if Oklahoma State or Colorado do the same.
All I know is that I am glad that I am not the committee – its going to be hard to figure out who goes. Two more bubble teams still to play – lets see what Syracuse and Texas do. Syracuse at least has the comfort that they won their first round game – and UNC is a tough opponent. Texas has to make sure they don’t get upset by Iowa State.