Consider this Part 2 of last night’s rant….. This article has multiple purposes. Most important purpose is to honor all the Regular Season Conference Champions – they deserve a chance to get some recognition, even if it is simply a place in the Lunatic’s Blog. But it also is an opportunity to start to break down the bubble. I will divide the teams into groups – based on which conference tournaments could have the possibility of bursting a bubble if the conference champion loses…..
Must win the conference championship – will not get any consideration for an at-large
Conf USA – North Texas (NET 96, 20-11, 14-4) – March 14th
WAC – New Mexico State (NET 105, 25-6, 16-0) – March 14th
Big West – UC-Irvine (NET 113, 21-11, 13-3) – March 14th
Patriot – Colgate (NET 115, 25-8, 14-4) – March 11th
Horizon – Wright State (NET 120, 25-6, 15-3) – March 10th (Editor’s Note – they are losing tonight in their semi-final to UIC by double digits – YIKES!)
Colonial – Hofstra (NET 122, 24-8, 14-4) – March 10th
Big Sky – Eastern Washington (NET 135, 23-8, 16-4) – March 14th
Summit – North Dakota State (NET 137, 23-8, 13-3) and South Dakota State (NET 129, 22-10, 13-3) – March 10th
Sun Belt – Ark – Little Rock (NET 141, 21-10, 15-5) – March 15th
MAAC – Siena (NET 155, 19-10, 15-5) – March 14th
SWAC – Prairie View A&M (NET 202, 18-13, 14-4) – March 14th
NEC – St. Francis PA (NET 173, 22-9, 13-5) and Robert Morris (NET 214, 19-14, 13-5) – March 10th (special call-out at bottom of blog)
MEAC – NC Central (NET 257, 17-13, 13-3) – March 14th
Must win the conference championship – but since at least one bubble team with an RPI between 50 and 80 will get in, it feels like we should say they will get considered for an at-large bid. History says they will not…..
Ivy – Yale (NET 70, 23-7, 11-3) – March 15th
MAC – Akron (NET 74, 24-7, 14-4) – March 14th
Southland – Stephen F Austin (NET 77, 28-3, 19-1) – March 14th
America East – Vermont (NET 79, 25-7, 14-2) – March 14th
Lost their conference tournament but is in the NET Top 50 – they will at least get considered…..
Missouri Valley – Northern Iowa (NET 48, 14-4, 25-6) – BRADLEY won tourney
PLAYING RIGHT NOW – In the NET Top 50 – a bubble will burst if ETSU lose – but hopefully that bubble wouldn’t have been ETSU. Well, hopefully, they will win and we won’t have to ever find out……
Southern – East Tennessee State (NET 39, 29-4, 16-2)
WON THEIR TOURNEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Atlantic Sun – Liberty (NET 68, 30-4, 13-3) – special note…. the NCAA shows the current and previous NET ranking. Liberty’s ranking went from 64th to 68th thanks to winning their conference tournament……. That just doesn’t seem right…….. So, I had to check, three teams that passed Liberty this week while the Flames were winning 3 games were St. John’s (who lost at Butler by 22), Syracuse (who lost at Miami in OT) and Tennessee (who lost by 22 at HOME to Auburn). So the Flames got passed by two teams that lost by over 20 points to potential tournament teams and one who lost to a team who likely won’t make the tournament – while all they did was win three games to claim their conference championship. Sure – Auburn and Butler (and even Miami) are better teams than Liberty beat in the Atlantic Sun tournament. But I am pretty sure that if you gave the Flames a chance to play Butler or Auburn, they could at least not lose by more than 22 points…… Have to say – that still doesn’t seem right – it is the truth, but doesn’t seem right……
OVC – Belmont (NET 101, 26-7, 15-3) – beat co-champion Murray State (NET 134, 23-9, 15-3)
Big South – Winthrop (NET 146, 24-10, 15-3) – co-champion Radford lost before the championship game (NET 184, 21-11, 15-3)
BUBBLE GOT SEMI-BURST
Mountain West – San Diego State (NET 4, 30-2, 17-1) – lost to Utah State in the championship. San Diego State is a lock to make it – Utah State was on the bubble but now they don’t need to worry (someone else does….)
REMAINING SMALL CONFERENCE LOCKS – these conferences will take a spot away from the bubble since at least the top team is a lock to make the tournament
American – Houston (NET 20, 23-8, 13-5), Cincinnati (NET 51, 20-10, 13-5) and Tulsa (NET 78, 21-10, 13-5). Houston has the type of profile (top 25 NET and in the AP/Coaches Top 25) to survive a loss (although they might get a little uncomfortable if that lost is in the quarterfinals). – March 15th
West Coast – Gonzaga (NET 2, 29-2, 15-1). Bubble bursts if Gonzaga or BYU doesn’t win. St. Mary’s is on the bubble and would love to upset BYU and Gonzaga so they don’t have to sweat out Selection Sunday. – March 10th
Atlantic 10 – Dayton (NET 3, 29-2, 18-0). Richmond is clearly on the bubble – but since they are so close to the cut line, you have to figure anyone outside of Dayton winning is making the bubble smaller. – March 15th
MAJOR CONFERENCES – many others from these conferences could win without reducing the true bubble, but these conference champs are all locks. And while the point was to recognize the small conference champs, it feels awkward not to give these champs their praise as well.
Big 12 – Kansas (NET 1, 28-3, 17-1) – March 14th
ACC – Florida State (NET 10, 26-5, 16-4) – March 14th
Big East – Creighton (NET 11, 24-7, 13-5), Villanova (NET 13, 24-7, 13-5) and Seton Hal (NET 15, 21-9, 13-5) – March 14th
Pac 12 – Oregon (NET 12, 24-7, 13-5) – March 14th
SEC – Kentucky (NET 21, 25-6, 15-3) – March 15th…. Have to add not sure how the 7th/8th team in the country (depending on if you agree with the Coaches or the AP) has a NET ranking of 21st… Suspect it has to do with losing to Evansville in the first game of the season – of which if that is the case, it is kind of sad……
Big 10 – Wisconsin (NET 24, 21-10, 14-6), Michigan State (NET 7, 22-9, 14-6), and Maryland (NET 18, 24-7, 14-6) – March 15th
SPECIAL CALLOUT IN THE NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
The actual conference champion in the NEC was Merrimack (NET 217, 20-11, 14-4). But because of the NCAA rules around schools transitioning to Division 1, Merrimack isn’t eligible to play in the NCAA Tournament, and thus, won’t be playing in the NEC conference tournament championship. However, Merrimack deserves to be on this list – it is truly incredible to be in your first season in Division 1 basketball and end up finishing as the outright regular season champion. Sadly, they have to hope that the CBI or CIT will invite them since they are ineligible for the two bigger NCAA-run tournaments.
And while I don’t want to jinx it, right now, East Tennessee State looks like they are going to lock up their bid as they have a 68-54 lead over Wofford with 1 minute and 37 seconds left. That will be good for the bubble, but even better for East Tennessee State – a 29/30 win team deserves to be dancing in March!
So – there you go! All the regular season champions got some recognition (hopefully, I didn’t forget someone as I was typing). And you get a Championship Week viewing guide – when championship games will be, which conferences might impact the bubble, which teams to root for simply because they deserve to dance and winning their tournament is the only way that will happen….. It should be a great week of basketball!!!! As for tonight, I am going to work further on my bracketology strategy – and maybe watch a little of the West Coast semi-finals. Gonzaga is playing next (although would have preferred to see BYU / St. Mary’s). Don’t think it is a good idea to stay up for the 11:30 pm EST start time – that seems like creating sleep deprivation that isn’t necessary as much as I would like to watch.