Currently there are 12 teams in the top 34 who will be conference champions...fewer possibly if there are some upsets. Technically, that would give the Big Ten seven if it is all done by the RPI, but it's not necessarily done that way. Michigan probably has a leg up on Minnesota if they take out teams.

If you want to know those conferences are (I just took the top RPI team from each conference):

Big East (Pitt)
ACC (UNC)
Big 12 (Oklahoma)
Big Ten (Michigan State)
Conference USA (Memphis)
Mountain West (Utah)
Pac Ten (Washington)
A-10 (Xavier)
Horizon (Butler)
Metro Atlantic (Siena)
WAC (Utah State)
WCC (Gonzaga)

Someone on another forum ruined it for me. Glad I didn't wait to watch it tonight now. :(

I think 5 are a lock. Beyond that, not so sure. I think likely one more gets in. This is all assuming one of the "locks" wins the tourney.

Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State and Wisky are in. Likely just one of Minny, UoM and Penn St get in after that.

FWIW.....here's the latest Bracketology 101 rankings, which have been the most accurate predictors of the NCAA field. They discuss the Big 11 teams......

Bracketology 101: Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - March 9

I'll buy the first 5, but Michigan and Minnesota? Come on. 9-9 when you're playing other mediocre teams and have a guaranteed win or two versus this year's Indiana squad is not impressive at all. Throw in the pansy out of conference schedule and it's weak at best.

Bubble teams get their first scare game tonight. Cleveland State plays Butler tonight for their conference championship. Cleveland State has won 11 of 13 and had close losses in both their meetings with Butler. Cleveland State also beat Syracuse earlier this year. A Cleveland State win means one less at-large bid for the big conferences.

As most on here know, I am far from a Michigan fan (in either sport), but are you serious about the pansy out of conference schedule? They have wins over Duke and UCLA and their only OOC losses were to Duke (not a typo, they played once in a preseason tourney and then again later on) and Maryland (not an elite team, but mid-60s RPI is very solid and far from a bad loss).

Minnesota has an RPI of 41, went undefeated OOC w/ a win over Louisville (a top 10 RPI team and the BE champ), has 20 wins and a .500 record in the #2 RPI conference in the country, and no bad losses.

And, the thing about Indiana is that they are really the only tough out in the conference. Iowa is the only other team in the B10 that is outside the RPI top 75 and they are not "that" bad at 112. That is why, unless Iowa or Indiana upset someone, teams like Minny, Michigan, and Wisconsin can really only help themselves, profile/resume-wise, in the conference tournament.

lol at Michigans pansy schedule. We played UConn even up in Storrs in February for most of the game before passing out. Played Duke twice, UCLA and Maryland. UM sos is 11 nationally. Come on about pansies.

The .500 record is the sticking point. Just based on the last three tournaments, the key to getting a bid if you're in one of the BCS conference is to get 20 wins in the regular season AND have a +.500 conference record. In the last three years, 100 out of 101 teams who met both those criteria made the NCAA tourney. If you don't have 20 wins in the regular season or have a .500 or less conference record, your changes of making the tourney drop significantly. Most likely, Minnesota and Michigan will need at least one win in the tourney and maybe two wins to play their way into the Dance.


By the same token, it could also be argued that Ohio State is the only quality team in the conference. Every team except OSU has at least 7 losses in conference play. Just depends on whether you believe it's parity or a bunch of so-so teams who lack consistancy.

OK...was lumping you lot in with Penn St and Minny

Not sure what you mean -- Ohio State finished fourth in the B10.

I'm no fan of the Big 10 (see Rich Rod and John Beilein defections), but just quickly looking over their OOC wins: Michigan St. over Kansas and Oklahoma, Illinois over Mizzou, Purdue over B.C., Ohio State over Butler/Miami/Notre Dame, Minnesota over Louisville, Michigan over Duke and UCLA, NW over Florida State. They have some pretty strong OOC wins.

I would be surprised if there is a Final Four team in there, with maybe the exception of Michigan State, but I think it is a pretty good league overall. Not as top heavy as the Big East or ACC or probably even the B12, but for its size, more depth and fewer below average teams.

Oh Swaggs, RichRod I get, but come on, you did get Huggy to replace Belien. At worst for you that was a wash ;)

But seriously, as I do not remember WVU outside of tourney play under Coach B; does he usually run the gauntlet OOC like he has the first two years here? I love the fact we've faced so many solid teams, though I know he said last year we would not play as tough a schedule, and yet we still have.

Sorry, meant Michigan State, not Ohio State.

I'm thrilled with Huggins, but Beilein left at a pretty bad time. He had just brought it 7 freshmen and a transfer to his system, which, as you know, is pretty unique. He also failed to go all out after some rare in-state talent during his last year or so (Billy Walker, O.J. Mayo, and Patrick Patterson), almost as if WVU was incapable of being considered for players of that calibre. He did a great job, but I feel like he had been looking to get out for awhile (looked at Indiana and NC State previously) and he seemed to believe that he would never be able to get top-notch recruits to WVU (which Huggins has been able to do). He doesn't get the Rich Rod treatment (Rod is an alum and had a lot of ties), but he or Michigan never asked permission to interview (which is obviously not required, but is usually considered a courtesy) and then fought his buyout. Everyone had always considered him a really classy guy and that wore a lot of luster off of him.

Plus, Beilein's offense was a lot of fun to watch (more on that in a moment) and got a lot of national attention. Like I said, I am very happy with Huggs and the talent and intensity he has brought (we hadn't had an NBA player in over 25 years and he comes in and transforms a marginal prospect like Joe Alexander into a lottery pick?), but after watching Beilein's offense, most other offenses looks out of sync and awkward.

All that said, here is what I think about Beilein, unobjectively. We were able to beat a lot of OOC teams with Beilein here -- I can quickly recall beating (during the regular season) UCLA twice (while they were having very good seasons), LSU, NC State a couple of times, Oklahoma, Maryland, Tennessee, and Florida -- teams that had more talent, but Beilein outcoached and we shot well. We also slipped up several times and lost to teams that we should not have, when our shots were not falling. His offense is so disciplined that, if shots are not falling, there is little wiggle room for creating offense off of 1 on 1s. We notably lost to Marshall several times during his tenure.

I think, at Michigan, he actually will be able to bring in better players than he had at WVU and I think he will be successful. His teams are tough to play/beat in tournaments, because his offense and defense (the 1-3-1) are so unorthodox that it takes time to prepare for, which you do not have when you are playing every day or two. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see a decent B10 tourney run this season from Michigan.

This next part is pretty much my own speculation, but there is some decent evidence to support it. I think Big East teams had gotten familiar enough with his style, that he was starting to struggle to beat them as consistently the final two years at WVU, even though we continued to have success in national tournaments against teams that were unfamiliar against us. I think that he recognizes/recognized this and likes to move on every 5-years or so, so that he can get a fresh start. He never seems to stay at one school for more than 5 or 6 years and his tenures always seem to take the same trajectory. I would expect some national success in the next 3-4 years at Michigan and then it will be interesting to see if he sticks around or moves on.

So do big east fans like this 5 day tournament? Its a 16 team conference... 1 v 16, 2 vs 15, etc etc, 4 day single elimination fits kinda nice :P I assume the reason its structured this way instead is to limit the top 4 teams to 3 games to keep them rested for the NCAA Tournament, but it just looks like a giant ugly mess to me.

they claim they also wanted to get every team in.

Speaking of the Big East, I am sad to see my old school, CIncinnati, limp to the finish. Lost 3 in a row, including Seton Hall and USF, and are now struggling to beat DePaul.

The 1-4 vs. 13-16 games would have been a waste of everyone's time. Rewards the teams by order of their finish too which makes the regular season more meaningful.

I don't see how a 9 vs 16 game followed by a 9 vs 8 game to see who gets to play Louisville is any less waste of time than Louisville playing winless DePaul. In fact its a greater waste of time as it adds a completely unnecessary day to the tournament. If that's the argument it seems like they should have kept it a 12 team tournament and just not allowed the bottom four teams in.

I love the BE setup.

I like gradual build-up to the big names. There's the "play-in" day, then the winners get to take on the "good" teams, and then the survivors of all that get to take on the "great" teams. There's a certain elegance to that, though it does look like a mess at first glance.

And I like that for one day, the spotlight shines on the "other" teams. Look at Depaul - they didn't win a single conference game, and they're about to knock of Cincinnatti. That's the highlight of their entire season.

It also gives the "good" teams a chance for an "easy" win in the tournament. Take my team (Syracuse). They should be good for one tournament win vs. the winner of Seton Hall/South Florida. They've earned the shot to play a weaker team, and if they win that, they've earned the chance to take on UConn. It's hard to articulate, but the "correct" Syracuse run in the BE tournament just feels like it should be an easy win followed by a loss to UConn.

And I like that everyone is invited. I'm sure DePaul doesn't consider it a "waste of time" to take the trip to NYC. It's like big Big East party/celebration. I like that everyone gets to go.

DePaul loves the format.

FYI, all the above comments do make sense. Its just that for any number of teams you can come up with, there is automatically one tournament format that makes the most sense. For 16 teams, its clearly 4 single elimination rounds.

What the big east does is fine, it just offends my need for symmetry in these things on first glance :D

I think the other issue with the straight 16-team tournament is you'd either have to do 8 games in one day, or somehow decide who gets the extra day of rest between games.

lol, I like it to for all the reasons Molson said.

Plus it is held at MSG and gives fans of the lower tier schools a chance to travel. Rutgers and St. Johns are typical bottom feeders in the league, I like the fact they get to play since their fans are so close. If I was still in the area I would be going to the RU game for sure.

The games today are certainly a waste of time. Cincinnatti-DePaul? Ridiculous. The fact that ESPN chose not to televise a portion of its primary partner's tournament should tell everyone what a waste of time these games are.

This was a compromise between the faction who wanted to include everyone and the one that wanted protect the top seeds. Led to a terrible solution.

I guess it does not really affect me - I can still watch tomorrow when the real games start, and pretend the four play in games did not happen. Of course, I am not a Cincinnatti fan.

Good points, but Michigan State did not beat Oklahoma, they beat Texas, I believe.

I would dispute the "spotlight" point. The games are not on tv, and only girlfriends/parents are at the games (SJU will be the exception, somewhat). There is no spotlight on these games.

This format change also did not really change the prospects of the "good" (5-8 seeded) teams much. Under the previous format, Syracuse would have just played Seton Hall, with the winner facing UConn. Now, they'll play the winner of SHU/USF, and UConn if they win. In a straight, symmetric 16 team draw, they'd play Seton Hall with the winner playing the winner of UConn/USF. In all three cases, they'd be very likely to play Seton Hall then UConn.

This format actually hurt Providence today. They are largely considered the only Big East team on the bubble, and instead of getting a chance to get a respectable win before playing Louisville, they get a dreadful opponent.

Good article on CNN about how NOBODY else in the basketball or hockey worlds asks players to play on potentially 5 straight days:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ast/index.html

Cincinnati took care of that whole "winless DePaul" thing ;)

I'm sure that potential 5th day pushes them over the edge to becoming gas pumpers.

This is such a silly argument. If we cared about the academics of players, there wouldn't be conference tournaments at all (see the Ivy League), and the NCAA tournament would be regionally based, with games on campus sites, to limit travel. And all season long, games would only occur on weekends, or weeknights to sites close enough to ensure that kids would be back home the night of the game.

Of course in reality, most of these players can barely read, and hardly any of them would be "college students" at schools like these without basketball - so that's the priority.

But back to the current format, the top teams only need to play 3 games at most, which definitely adds importance to the regular season. DePaul/Cincinnati was "meaningless" in the sense that neither team is going to win the Big East tournament, but we could certainly pare down the NCAA tournament to a dozen or so teams if that's the criteria.

Well, to be fair to the Big East, there's the whole logistical problem of figuring out how to schedule eight first round games in a traditional 16-team bracket arrangement. The choice would likely be between splitting the tournament to two sites on one day (MSG and Newark/E Rutherford?) or spreading the first round over two days and determining what the fairest arrangement would be as to who would get that second day as a rest day. Presumably the top four seeds and their opponents would go first so that those top four seeds get the rest day, but potential upsets would mean that a bottom-four seed gets the rest day while a middle seed would have to play back-to-back against the upset winner.

I suppose you could do it all in one day...if you don't mind getting up at 6 AM for the first game and staying until midnight for the last one and no breaks the entire day to boot. :D

Bubble teams watching nervously as Cleveland State is up 56-54 against Butler with about 1 min to go (ESPN). If Butler loses, they'll still get an at-large bid

SI

yeah, that screws Davidson I think. Glad to see Gary Waters go to the tourny, I always thought he was a good coach at Rutgers who never stood a chance in the recruiting battle.

Davidson was screwed when they lost all but one game against the top 100 and were a member of the Southern Conference. This really screwed someone like Florida or Creighton.

Davidson was out as soon as they lost that game. Their RPI and SOS just aren't good enough.

Bracketology 101 has St. Mary's as the only #13 at-large bid as of yesterday, which means they will be out after the Cleveland State win.

My use of Davidson was an example, insert St Marys, Florida, Creighton, or whoever. I forgot how literally people take stuff around here.

You have stepped into the pit of basketball geekdom. :D

Mike DeCourcey discusses the Big 11/Big East/ACC and how something's has to give in regards to at-large bids for these conferences........

SportingNews.com - Your expert source for NCAA Basketball stats, scores, standings, and blogs from NCAA Basketball columnists

:)

Are there any fans out there going to the Big 10 Tourney? If so let me know and maybe we can meet up!

Don't look now but DePaul is up by 9 in the first half and Providence looks very tight

dola-

8-o run by the Friars in about a 40 second span

Man, I can't believe how good the second day of the B12 tourney could be as far as matchups go.

KU vs. Baylor - Baylor has the offensive weapons when they're playing well to do a lot of damage. Many of KU's young players get their first B12 tourney game.

OU vs. OSU - Bedlam series on a neutral court in OK City. That'll be nuts.

MU vs. A&M - MU lost the season finale at College Station. A&M looks to solidify their NCAA credentials.

KSU vs. UT - KSU started UT's slide in the middle of the season with a win in Austin. Now KSU needs a win to have a shot at the bubble.

I may be leaving after lunch tomorrow.

I dont think providence has any business being in this years tourney. Their big win agaisnt Pitt was horrible. Everything went their way and they still almost lost. Other than that they havent done or shown me anything. Just my 2 cents though :)

Their performance today didn't do anything to help them.

This thread needs some A-10 love!

St. Louis and La Salle going to overtime!

St. Louis wins a butt clencher 62-60 in OT.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooo Billikens!

SLU won in overtime.

Wow - St. Johns with 3 field goals at halftime. That is not very good.

Syracuse and Seton Hall, in the midst of a tight game in the second half, are getting chippy.

First, a double technical and now a pretty nasty flagrant foul. Looked like there might be some ejections, but they went to break.

Very chippy game indeed