I have an amazing wife – she is driving us up to DC for Katie’s rugby game, allowing me a chance to blog. Of course, that altruism might simply be a preference for safety so that I am not driving – but I am going to keep believing it is she wants to let me concentrate on basketball.
I don’t think I have the patience to type out all 23 games on my phone as Katie and Elizabeth sing to Hamilton songs. But as far as a viewing guide is concerned, here is the big thing to realize. 13 teams are going to win a game today and earn the honor of having their name called out on Sunday’s Selection Show. And the other 10 winners are going to play each other Sunday for the final 5 automatic bids.
You can not go wrong watching any of the games today. For many of them, you will have two teams playing with such passion because they know that a loss likely means their season is over. The Lunatic is excited for all of the games and wishes he could watch all of them. So realize that leaving anyone out of the blog at this point is simply a matter of what catches his eye as we head to rugby.
If you want to watch to see if there is a mid-major team that could be your 12-14 seed upset, there are plenty to choose from.
– 11 am – America East sees 27-6 Vermont play UMass-Lowell – a team with that many wins is always worth keeping an eye on
– 11 am – Ivy semifinal with 24-3 Princeton against Brown – Princeton started the season with a victory against Rutgers so they are certainly possible of beating a major conference team.
– 1 pm – Atlantic 10 semi with VCU and St Joseph’s. The local Rams have certainly made noise in the tournament before – and so have other A-10 teams.
– 3 pm – American semi between regular season champ South Florida (24-6) and a good UAB (21-11) team. South Florida didn’t have a great non-conference but going 16-2 in the American shows they can hang with anyone if they keep winning.
– 3:30 pm – Atlantic 10 semi-final between Duquesne and St Bonaventure – Duquesne just knocked off Dayton and the Bonnies beat Oklahoma State in November.
– 5 pm – American semi between Florida Atlantic and Temple. FAU has a resume that likely might be in as an at-large, so if you are rooting for a bubble team, you are also hoping FAU wins their next 2 games as any other American team will be stealing a bid.
– 7:30 pm – MAC final between Akron (23-11) and Kent State – the MAC schools tend to always be a tough out in March and Akron has lost a few close games against other top mid-major schools.
– 11:30 pm – WAC brings the night-owls a chance to watch Grand Canyon (28-4) against UT-Arlington. Grand Canyon has non-conference victories against San Diego State and San Francisco.
Well maybe I almost will have all the games here – we can’t leave out the major conferences. Lets start with championships
– 6 pm Big 12 – #1 Houston vs #7 Iowa State – might be the biggest game of the night with the top 2 teams from the toughest conference playing.
– 6:30 pm Big East – #2 Connecticut vs #10 Marquette would normally top the list of games if it wasn’t for the Big 12 game above it.
– 6 pm Mountain West – San Diego State vs New Mexico. Both these teams should probably be in the tournament, but it is still unclear to me if the Committee will take 6 teams from a conference not considered one of the major 6. Those 6 teams deserve it but perception and money are tough opponents. New Mexico probably needs to win this game more as I suspect the Aztecs are safer with their profile.
– 8:30 pm ACC – #4 North Carolina vs NC State – at the start of my bracketology, I had the Wolfpack as a long shot simply because a few wins could get them into the top 80 of the NET (where the conversation normally starts). Can they win 5 games in 5 days and punch their ticket to the dance? If they beat the Tar Heels, they will certainly have earned their spot.
– 9 pm Pac 12 – Colorado vs Oregon – if you believe Joe Lunardi, Colorado is one of the last 4 teams in and Oregon is not under consideration (which seems ridiculous – they finished 4th in the Pac 12 at 22-11 with a NET of 61). I can’t imagine the disrespect to the Pac 12 that in the final year of their existence that they only get 3 teams in the tournament – but if the media is right, Oregon needs to win this game to give them a chance at 4 (and that might simply steal the bid from Colorado).
That leaves us with the Big 10 and SEC. The Big 10 semi-finals have 4 teams likely safely in the tournament as all 4 of them are in the top 31 of the NET rankings. #3 Purdue opens the semis against Wisconsin at 1 pm while #13 Illinois takes on Nebraska at 3:30 pm.
The SEC semi-finalists might also all be in but it is less clear based on where they placed in the conference. #12 Auburn plays Mississippi State (who is ranked 32 in the NET but went 8-10 in the SEC) at 1 pm. And then at 3:30 pm, Florida (who is probably safely in with a NET ranking of 28) plays Texas A&M (who is more nervous with a NET ranking of 42 and a 9-9 conference record).
And with that, we have arrived at Signal Hill Park for Katie’s rugby game!!! Go Richmond Strikers Rugby!!!! And good luck to any of the teams you are rooting for today!!!! Enjoy Championship Saturday!!!!