Thursday Night Wrap-Up

Georgia Tech did not clinch a bid with its 62-58 win over North Carolina tonight; however, they avoided the disaster that Memphis and UAB suffered earlier today. Tough year for the Tar Heels. I don’t even think they are NIT quality at this point and Roy Williams will have to decide on whether or not to accept a CBI bid, if they are fortunate enough to get one.

San Diego St barely survived an upset attempt today at the hands of Colorado State but held off The Rams 72-71. The win keeps the Aztecs in the conversation; however, they are not guaranteed a bid as of yet.

The Cinderella story of Cincinnati ended at Madison Square Garden tonight as Da’Sean Butler hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer (off the backboard) to help West Virginia to a 54-51 victory over West Virginia. They will move on to the semifinals while Cincinnati heads to the NIT. Gotta feel for Deon Dixon of Cincinatti, who turned the ball over with 3.1 seconds left, allowing West Virginia to get the final shot.

Florida has not been to the NCAA Tournament since they won back to back titles in 2006 and 2007 and they have not clinched a bid yet. I still think Florida is on the right side of the bubble and they secured that status with a 78-69 win over Auburn. The Gators get no brownie points for beating Auburn, but they don’t lose anything by beating them either.

Barring a miracle, it is this bracketologist’s opinion that the Pac-10 will have at most two teams in the NCAA Tournament. Stanford defeated Arizona State 70-61, who finished 2nd, in the Pac-10 standings, in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament. While Arizona State finished 22-10, they only have 1 top 50 RPI win (San Diego State) and lost both games to conference champion California. Their RPI (53) and Strength of Schedule (75) also do them no favors. I post this with no idea what will happen with Washington tonight, but they need to defeat Oregon State tonight to keep their tourney bubble a-float.

Updated Field of 65 (assuming Washington wins tonight)

Big East (8): Syracuse, West Virginia, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Marquette, Louisville, Notre Dame
ACC (7): Duke, Maryland, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech
Big 12 (7): Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Texas A&M, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma St
SEC (5): Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Florida, Mississippi
Big Ten (4): Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue
Atlantic 10 (3): Xavier, Temple, Richmond
Mountain West (4): New Mexico, BYU, UNLV, San Diego St
Conference USA (2): UTEP, Memphis
Pac 10 (2): California, Washington
WCC (2): Saint Marys, Gonzaga

One Bid Leagues (21) (clinched spot in bold, projected team non-bold)

American East Stony Brook
Atlantic Sun East Tenn St
Big Sky Montana
Big South Winthrop
Big West UC Santa Barbara
Colonial Old Dominion
Horizon Butler
Ivy Cornell
MAAC Siena
MAC Kent State
MEAC Morgan State
Mo Valley Northern Iowa
NEC Robert Morris
Ohio Valley Murray State
Patriot Lehigh
Southern Wofford
Southland Sam Houston St
Summit Oakland
Sun Belt North Texas
SWAC Jackson State
WAC Utah State

Last Four In: Washington, Mississippi, Memphis, San Diego State
First Four Out: San Diego State, Seton Hall, Illinois, Dayton