I did do some reasearch into what was a magic number for the BCS conference teams over the past three years. Here's what I found.....

-Over the past 3 years, 101 teams in the BCS conferences (B12, B10, SEC, P10, ACC, BEAST) had 20+ Division I wins during the regular season and a record better than .500. Out of those 101 teams, 100 of them made it (lone exception was Kansas State, who finished 4th in the B12, which was rated the 7th best conference that year). Dropping to .500 in conference or below 20 wins reduces the qualification percentage substantially.

-Over the past 3 years, the top 4 rated conferences have qualified 6 or more teams 13 out of 16 times.

The problem for Notre Dame is two-fold. They're going to have an extremely tough time getting to 20 wins, given that they currently only have 11 D-I wins. Also, a 6-4 finish would only get them to .500, which likely won't be enough since they'd have a RPI record of 17-11 with that finish. They must have a 7-3 finish to give themselves a good chance to make the tournament. Conference tournament performance will also be crucial.

Maybe Notre Dame will make the 4th postseason tournament.

http://www.collegeinsider.com/tournament/about.html

So I'm watching Maryland lose at home to Boston College on ESPN2 and I see across the top of the screen "to share your opinion search "interactive" on ESPN.com"

Then all of a sudden mindless user chatter starts floating by:

"Imatool69: Maryland needs a basket. BostonRulz: Rice and BC are too much!"

etc etc, like its TRL or something. When did this horrible abomination start? I fired off an annoyed e-mail to the ESPN ombudsman (I'm a big fan of her columns) before posting here.

dola, I should point out that this annoying distraction across the top of my screen came in the final 2 minutes when the teams were separated by only 1 point... just awful broadcasting.

But when I think about how many times I'm watching the computer more closely than the TV during games, posting here & whatnot ... well, it would likely annoy me too but I can definitely understand the reasoning behind it.

They started it during football season on Tuesdays. It is all game long. Usually I don't even notice it.

:popcorn:

Maryland Terrapins coach Gary Williams, athletic department at odds over recruits - ESPN

The tension between Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams and the school's athletic department is evident, and judging from Williams' comments made Tuesday night, might be escalating.

The catalyst is Williams' recruiting, which he discussed in a news conference Monday morning. He was talking about next season's incoming class, then was asked about two high-profile recruits he lost in 2008, Gus Gilchrist and Tyree Evans.

Gilchrist, a 6-foot-10 forward, transferred to South Florida during the summer. Evans, a 6-3 guard, ended up at Kent State.

Williams told reporters: "It wasn't my fault that they're not here. That was somebody else's call."

That prompted Maryland senior associate athletic director Kathleen Worthington to tell The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday: "I want to clarify the facts and the timing and the decision process of these situations. It was my recommendation that we not sign a release for Gus. I didn't want to release him. It was the head coach's decision. No one else released Gus."

Washington- and Baltimore-area reporters brought up the subject again Tuesday night with Williams after the Terrapins' 76-67 loss to Boston College.

Williams' latest volley: "Kathy Worthington doesn't speak for me, she has never won a national championship, she has never done anything. She's an associate AD. This is just giving you guys stuff to make me look bad."

The players in question, Gilchrist and Evans, have complicated histories in relation to the Terrapins.

Gilchrist originally had signed with Virginia Tech, but after the April 2007 campus shootings that left a total of 33 dead, he asked for and was granted his release from his national letter of intent. Gilchrist went to Maryland, but was faced with an ACC rule that states a player transferring within the conference not only has to sit out a year, but also lose a year of eligibility.

Gilchrist sat out his first year at Maryland as he went through (and lost) the appeals process.

According to The Baltimore Sun, Williams signed a document, dated June 3, that released Gilchrist from the school.

"He was going to leave. Me signing the release had nothing to do with it," Williams said after Tuesday's game. "He had made up his mind. Why not sign a release and let the kid go where he wants? Why am I bad for signing a release?"

The controversy over Evans stems from his checkered history, and whether Maryland school officials were made aware of it before Williams began recruiting him.

According to The Sun, Evans, a junior-college transfer, was offered a scholarship by Maryland in spring 2008. However, the Terrapins announced shortly thereafter that Evans asked to be released, a request that was granted.

"After much thought, Tyree felt Maryland was not the best fit for him at this time, and I support his decision," Williams said at the time.

Worthington, the associate AD, said Williams stopped the recruiting process after learning Evans had been convicted of misdemeanor drug charges as well as misdemeanor assault and battery.

"Gary made the final decision to withdraw an offer of aid to Tyree and personally called the Office of Student Affairs to inform them he was no longer recruiting Tyree Evans because Tyree had not disclosed all of the criminal issues he'd had in his past," Worthington said, according to The Sun. "Gary became upset that Tyree hadn't disclosed everything."

Williams said Tuesday night that as Evans' history came to light, the media coverage and publicity made it clear it would have been difficult for the player.

"You shouldn't make that kid come into that situation here," Williams said. "He would have had to go through so much just being a student on campus after everything that was said in the papers."

Added Williams: "I've run a clean program for 20 years. Check my record. I coach here, I've got to live here. I've coached here for 20 years, long before anyone else was here. Nobody was here 20 years ago."

Wake Forest is playing extremely well tonight and leads Duke by 11 with 9 minutes to go.


They keep running alerts across the score line on ESPN about lots of potential upsets in the big east too.

And duke has made a run and trails by only 2 with the ball with 17.5 seconds to go.

Duke tied the game with 10 seconds to go. Wake missed a shot but got the ball out of bounds after a scramble on the rebound... some miscommunication (or something... shitty defense I guess!) on the inbounds play leads to an easy layup with .8 seconds to go and Wake Forest wins 70-68.

Great ending.

With 7:30 remaining in the first half Florida State led North Carolina 26-17 and UNC was unable to do anything right. Danny Green singlehandedly kept it even that close with 11 points early. They ended the half on a 28-9 run and lead 46-35 at the half.

FSU has been playing some very good defense in the second half... they led 68-63, its tied at 69 now. Hansbrough and Green both have 4 fouls for UNC with 4:30 to go.

So Georgetown appears to be emulating Notre Dame. How did this team win at UConn again?

UNC-FSU tied at 77 under 1 minute to play.

Man, another game going down to the wire here... 77-77, Florida State has the ball with 16 seconds left(12 seconds left on the shot clock).

holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit.

Nova with a huge win tonight over #3 Pitt.

There's still a long way to go in the Big East season, but at least people can't say Villanova still lacks a signiture win.

FSU got the ball with 12 seconds left on the shot clock, held it probalby too long, and Hansbrough played some GREAT perimeter defense on FSU's #1 scoring threat, Toney Douglas(who had 32 points). Douglas tries to lean into Hansbrough to draw a foul and puts up a weak shot. Its a good no-call and the shot clock runs out.

UNC gets the ball on the baseline with 3.2 seconds left. Lawson takes the inbounds pass, no one really tries to slow him down as he rushes up the court, and hits a running 3-pointer that left his hand with 0.2 seconds left. UNC with a tough road win, 80-77.

That was a dreadful final half-minute of play by Florida State. Yes, the refs kinda-sorta nudged it for the Heels earlier (seriously, how late can a whistle be on a foul like the one that resulted in the three-point play that tied the game?...the ball was practically in the hole when the whistle blew, regardless of whether it was correct or not), but FSU was atrocious besides that and didn't deserve the win. They didn't seem to have any urgency in their final possession and Douglas winds up dribbling around before making a hare-brained shot attempt thinking that the refs were somehow going to bail him out (um, that's Hansborough, dude, the refs aren't gonna call one on him in that situation). Then they practically let Lawson go unmolested for seventy feet. Granted he still had to make a tough runner from beyond the line, but getting there was the easy part for him.

Dola...interesting to see the differences between a Carolina fan's perspective and a non-Carolina fan's perspective on the same event. :D

haha I wasn't going to reply, but I did enjoy your post quite a bit :)

Seriously though Douglas trying to draw the foul on Hansbrough there was ridiculous. Hansbrough didn't even go up into the air, he was letting him take the shot over him and good for him if he could make it. Just a horrible, horrible decision. Step back and drain the jumper.

Oh, I don't dispute it in the slightest that it was a good non-call. (Most State fans beg to differ, but then they'd beg to differ if Dean Smith/Coach K/Roy/the refs said the sky was blue...especially the refs) Even so, that was some of the most dead-from-the-neck-up play from a team with a lead and trying to hold on to it (and I ought to know...I'm somewhat of a pessimist and I think it's because of State athletics over the last two decades).

Yeah I agree. Douglas had Hansbrough 1 on 1 for pretty much the entire final minute and didn't once make a serious effort to go by him. The couple plays prior to that weren't a whole heck of a lot better.

Georgia reportedly firing Dennis Felton at a news conference at 11 am.

'Bout 10 months too late there. I don't care if he did win the SEC tourney. He should have been gone.

How comfortable is Paul Hewitt at Georgia Tech?

He just landed a 5-star 'one and done' player, so I'm guessing he's secure until that kid is on campus at a minimum.

Being winless in conference play certainly doesn't help matters, but would the Georgia Tech A.D. want to take a chance on Derrick Favors and a 4th-ranked recruiting class de-committing?

I don't know what the AD might be willing to take a chance on but at this point I believe the fan base (what's left of it anyway) would be more than happy to risk it.

The one & done thing has gotten very old here, especially with a staff that doesn't seem capable of handling it. I don't really see Favors changing the W-L record significantly, we'll suck at worst & be mediocre at best with him or without him as long as Hewitt is here. In eight full seasons, Tech has had a winning record in the ACC only once and has won only a single NCAA tournament game since losing in the championship to UConn.

Either way, I'm not sure that'll be what might keep Hewitt's job secure nearly so much as the prospect of another costly buy out.

Big Game late tonight out west as "arguably" (that's for you Pac-10 & UCLA Homers) the two best teams on the left coast tip off at 11:00pm Eastern... St. Mary's and Gonzaga.

Virginia Tech leads Clemson 76-74 with 4:30ish to go in the game on ESPN. I didn't start watching until the 8 minute mark or so, but apparently Virginia Tech blew a big lead.

Upside down night for the women's game as #5 Auburn (20-0) trails Georgia by double digits with 3 minutes or so to play and Tennessee trails Ole Miss by 9 with under five minutes to play in Knoxville, where the Rebels haven't won in 21 years.

If there is a home team blowing a double digit lead, chances are I've taken that team in the ESPN streak game. Sigh.

Clemson couldn't stop them at ALL in the first half. It's been a great game, though.

Virginia Tech really fell apart a bit in that final minute. Big win for Clemson

Lady Vols rally & survive by one point to give Pat win #999. Going for #1000 at Oklahoma.

Auburn doesn't rally & their unbeaten streak comes to an end.

Wow, 22-16 lead after the first half for Minnesota over Illinois.

Minnesota holds Illinois to 36 for a 59-36 win.

I guess I'm glad I turned the game off with 12 minutes to go. First time I've done that this year, but it was pretty clear that Minnesota had control of that game. Congrats to the Gophers for winning a "must win" game ... just wish they had not already given games up to MSU and Purdue in their own building coming into tonight.

Washington forgot that you need to play defense too and dropped a good chance for a road win at McKale Center vs. the Wildcats, 106-97.

I didn't think they'd win going in. Several of the key players are young and a bit raw, which has lead them to being an inconsistent team in Big Ten play. Thankfully Sampson and Iverson have been playing well recently, hopefully they will be able to help the team with improved inside play in the 2nd half of the conference season.

UCLA waxing Cal at Pauley. Not too surprising. Cal hasn't won @Ucla in a while.

St. Mary's is looking good against Gonzaga. Patty Mills is fantastic. I wonder if he'd be drafted ahead of Stephen Curry.

We've got the Zags-St. Mary's game on TV over here. Wish I wasn't at work. :(

I'm concerned about Mills in the NBA mainly because his shot is inconsistent and he lacks height. I project him as an Aaron Brooks type, I think.

Very glad to have him in our national side however. ;)

If I was a woman, I'd so have Rotnei Clarke's love child.

26 points in tonight's 89-80 win over 'Bama, the Hogs' first SEC win of the season.

Groundhog, whatever happened to Andrew Gaze anyway? Seton Hall should have one National Title under their belt.

Patrick Mills looks Stephon Curry-esque thus far.

Mills is hurt. This is going to be tough to them to hold off the Zags in a crazy ass atmosphere.

EDIT: Called Mills Curry

That sucks Mills is out. Gonzaga was cute back in the day but now I see them as trying to become Duke Jr. in my mind. Very annoying. And what's up with the Zags always having a guard with the mop hair going on? At least there aren't any pornstar mustaches on the roster (see Adam Morrison).

Good win for UCLA, getting them back on track

Whatever happened to Andrew Gaze? He became the greatest Aussie basketballer of all time. :)

Seriously, he was like Jordan down here (albeit a not-so-athletic Jordan who didn't dunk), averaged 38ppg one season, and won numerous championships with his Aussie team, coached by his dad. Very crafty scorer.

He also played (sparingly) for the Washington Bullets, as well as the San Antonio Spurs - though for the Spurs he was more of a rostered shooting coach, however he did get a championship ring with them.

He's one of our best known sporting identities down here, even if basketball's image has fallen through the floor.