We’re going to move to a twice-weekly schedule this week, so tune in Thursday for a complete preview of BracketBusters. However, I will say right now that there may be no more than two BracketBuster teams that enter the event in the field. I’ve only determined 23 of the 37 at-larges (we’re extending to the 8th seed line today), but the next two seed lines may be lacking in any teams outside the BCS conferences and Mountain West – think the likes of Marquette, Michigan State, Arizona, Florida State, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, and Penn State. The remaining six spots may include the likes of Marshall, Drexel, St. Mary’s, and George Mason, though.
Meanwhile, there really are no great teams this year. Kansas moves up to the overall #2 seed but still doesn’t have the deepest collection of wins. Duke has one RPI top 30 win and no true road wins in the top 60, and outside the Ladder they’re seriously being considered for a #1 seed. Florida has multiple atrocious losses and they’re on the #3 seed line; Wisconsin got propelled up to the third seed line by beating Ohio State mostly because the teams on the fourth line looked weak.
This edition of the Bracket Ladder is complete through the games of JFebruary 13, 2011. This means it does not include any of Monday’s games, including the Syracuse-West Virginia game.
How to read the chart: Teams are listed in order of my assessment of their strength based on the criteria established by the selection committee. The large gray number to the left is the team’s seed in the NCAA Tournament if the teams were seeded strictly according to the list order. Teams may receive a higher or lower seed because of bracketing principles. The code at the right side of each team name represents the team’s conference and a running count of the number of teams that conference has in all tournaments. The row beneath the team name packs in a whole bunch of information. In order: The team’s record is on the far left in bold. RPI: Rating Percentage Index rank. SOS: Strength of Schedule rank. R/N: Record in road and neutral-site games. OOC: Record in games outside the conference. RPI T50: Record against teams in the RPI Top 50. Wv≥: Number of wins against teams with the same or better color (more on this later). Lv≤: Number of losses against teams with the same or worse color. The colored bar at the far right side of the team name is the most important element, containing most of the information you need to know. It is color-coded to reflect where each team is in the pecking order and what they have to play for, as follows:
Ovr. #1-4 |
Gold: Cannot fall below the #1 seed. Listed with the overall seeds (#1-4) the team could get.
Silver: Cannot fall below the #2 seed. Bronze: Cannot fall below the #3 seed. Purple: Cannot fall below the #4 seed. Blue: Could earn a top-4 seed, or might not. Top-4 seeds receive protection in the bracket process to make sure they aren’t sent too far away from home, since they’ll be the top seed in their pod. Green: A lock to make the tournament, but cannot receive a top-4 seed. Numbers inside the boxes for silver through green indicate the seed range a team could receive. The first number is the seed ceiling, the best seed that could result from a reasonable best-case scenario for the rest of the season and the committee’s assessment of the team, the middle number is the current seed based on the current position in the bracket ladder, and the last number is the seed floor, the worst seed that could result from a reasonable worst-case scenario for the rest of the season and the committee’s assessment of the team. The seed ceiling could increase or seed floor decrease in extraordinary circumstances. Yellow: “Probably in”. This color marks the start of the bubble. Orange: On the tip of the bubble, could go either way. Listed as “Barely in” or “Barely out” based on what side of the cutline they fall in the order. Red: “Probably out”, teams with a longshot chance to make the NCAA Tournament but are more likely going to the NIT (or worse). Teams in this range that are the highest-rated from their conference are listed as “Needs Auto”, to indicate they need the auto bid to get in but are currently listed in the field. |
1 – 2 – 2 |
2 – 3 – 3 |
3 – 4 – 4 |
4 – 4 – 5 |
5 – 6 – 7 |
Probably In |
Barely In |
Probably Out |
1 | Pittsburgh | BST #1 | 1 – 1 – 5 | ||||||
23-2 | RPI: 6 | SOS: 20 | R/N: 9-1 | OOC: 12-1 | RPI T50: | 6-2 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 2 | |
Road wins over West Virginia and Villanova are enough for Pitt to jump back to the overall top seed. Unless they have a collapse of the caliber Syracuse is now having, they should be pretty safe for a #1 seed, especially if they win the Big East. (In fact, they’re pretty close to locking up a double-bye in MSG.) There’s always a good game in the Big East, and Pitt has a chance to prep for the Big East Tournament this week by avoiding Upset City against St. John’s (Saturday noon ET, ESPN). | |||||||||
1 | Kansas | B12 #1 | 1 – 1 – 7 | ||||||
24-1 | RPI: 1 | SOS: 11 | R/N: 10-0 | OOC: 15-0 | RPI T50: | 7-1 | Wv≥: 0 | Lv≤: 1 | |
Kansas is more a beneficiary of losses by Ohio State and UConn than moving up because of anything they themselves did. Beating Missouri helps, but it still says a lot that a team with a grand total of two RPI Top 30 wins has the second-best profile in the country. The Morris Twins have no other shots at quality wins (or any quality road wins) until Texas A&M and the road rematch with Missouri in March; they may need to win out to stay on the top seed line. | |||||||||
1 | Ohio State | B10 #1 | 1 – 1 – 4 | ||||||
24-1 | RPI: 4 | SOS: 36 | R/N: 8-1 | OOC: 13-0 | RPI T50: | 6-1 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 1 | |
So now that we don’t have to worry about Ohio State potentially going undefeated, how does their resume look now? Well, they have two very good wins, RPI-wise, over Purdue and Florida, the latter on the road, and their one loss is pretty respectable. But like Kansas, they have just those two wins over the RPI Top 30, and Wisconsin isn’t exactly Texas. I’m shocked that I heard Joe Lunardi this morning claiming Ohio State, even after losing, had the best overall resume; there is no chance I’m going to return them to the overall #1 seed. People keep praising the Big Ten for being equal at the top with the Big East, but the problem is those teams don’t have the RPI necessary to make it into the top four seed lines like the Big East schools. The road rematch with Purdue on Sunday (1pm ET, CBS) will be critically important just to stay on the 1 seed line. | |||||||||
1 | Connecticut | BST #2 | 1 – 1 – 6 | ||||||
19-5 | RPI: 13 | SOS: 16 | R/N: 7-3 | OOC: 12-0 | RPI T50: | 6-5 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 5 | |
It’s hard for me to keep defending the Huskies when they keep losing, especially to teams like St. John’s. All I can do is point to their lack of bad losses and their strength of schedule, not to mention beating Texas in Austin. They won’t have another shot at Pitt until the Big East Tournament, but if they don’t lose the rest of the way and beat all the best teams they could face in MSG, in the Big East, you still have to make a case for them, right? Georgetown (Wednesday 7pm ET, Big East Network) and Louisville (Friday 9pm ET, ESPN) won’t hurt them too much unless Notre Dame gets a big win; their biggest potential trap game to fall off the 1 seed line might be next week against Marquette. | |||||||||
2 | BYU | MWC #1 | 1 – 2 – 8 | ||||||
23-2 | RPI: 2 | SOS: 14 | R/N: 11-2 | OOC: 13-1 | RPI T50: | 7-1 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 2 | |
BYU has two very concerning losses on their resume, but they also have multiple RPI Top 25 wins, which is fairly impressive for a mid-major. That said, the Jimmer Fredettes probably need to win out to remain remotely this high, including reasserting their primacy over the Aztecs in San Diego late in the year. They could still appear and even finish on the top seed line if they can do that, especially since I’m not confident of Connecticut as a 1. Will the NCAA give them a top seed in that case? Of course not! They’ll disrespect the Mountain West too much. | |||||||||
2 | San Diego State | MWC #2 | 1 – 2 – 7 | ||||||
23-1 | RPI: 5 | SOS: 35 | R/N: 13-1 | OOC: 13-0 | RPI T50: | 5-1 | Wv≥: 0 | Lv≤: 1 | |
The Aztecs improve their resume by sweeping the series against UNLV, but since it matches a win they already had, it’s not good enough to appreciably improve their standing. They don’t get another chance at an RPI Top 20 win until the rematch with BYU in San Diego. That could mean a difference of a couple of spots in the seeding. They’re probably getting a top four seed either way… assuming they don’t take any non-BYU losses. New Mexico (Wednesday 10:30pm ET, mtn.) is determined to repeat their BYU success, even if they have to go to San Diego to do it. | |||||||||
2 | Notre Dame | BST #3 | 1 – 2 – 6 | ||||||
19-4 | RPI: 9 | SOS: 23 | R/N: 5-4 | OOC: 11-1 | RPI T50: | 7-3 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 4 | |
Notre Dame has three RPI Top 10 wins, against the other three of the best four Big East teams, and only Marquette as a truly questionable loss; you can’t tell me they can’t possibly win a 1. If they win out, especially if they win at UConn in the regular season finale, it’ll be very difficult to argue against them. There is probably only one more chance for them to lose their unbeaten home record, when Villanova comes to town at the end of the month. For now, they take a week off before heading to West Virginia (Saturday 1pm ET, CBS). Both games will help deepen their resume. | |||||||||
2 | Georgetown | BST #4 | 1 – 2 – 8 | ||||||
20-5 | RPI: 3 | SOS: 2 | R/N: 10-3 | OOC: 11-1 | RPI T50: | 8-5 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 5 | |
And the verdict is, “Georgetown is most likely for real”. The Hoyas proved their bona fides against Syracuse and made sure to avoid a potential trap game against Marquette. St. John’s looks like the only truly concerning conference loss, and it seems like most teams have trouble against Steve Lavin’s club in NYC (though West Virginia at home is also head-scratching). The real test, though, may be travelling to UConn (Wednesday 7pm ET, Big East Network); a win there would consolidate their position, a loss likely permanently knocks them out of the top tier of Big East teams. | |||||||||
3 | Texas | B12 #2 | 1 – 3 – 7 | ||||||
22-3 | RPI: 8 | SOS: 18 | R/N: 8-2 | OOC: 12-3 | RPI T50: | 6-2 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 3 | |
Missouri moves into the RPI Top 30 to give Texas another win there, but it’s still a rather thin resume for people to consider moving the Longhorns to the 1 seed line just yet; the Big 12 just isn’t as deep as the Big East past the top two teams. USC is their only bad loss, but they still don’t have a deep enough resume to overcome it and not much hope to improve it, as A&M remains the third best team in the conference, Missouri the next-best RPI team. The best they can hope for is to keep plugging away and hope the committee gives them credit for their record, and maybe prove the first Kansas game wasn’t a fluke in the Big 12 final. Fortunately their schedule the rest of the way is as weak as Ohio State’s; Oklahoma State (Wednesday 9pm ET, ESPN2) may be the best team they face before the Big 12 tournament. | |||||||||
3 | Florida | SEC #1 | 1 – 3 – 10 | ||||||
20-5 | RPI: 11 | SOS: 6 | R/N: 8-2 | OOC: 11-3 | RPI T50: | 8-1 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 4 | |
Psst… Florida is starting to look like they’re not a mirage. They avenged their loss to South Carolina and deepened their resume against Tennessee. Now they don’t have another questionable opponent the rest of the way, save for LSU (Sunday 1pm ET, ESPN), who, with an RPI outside the top 200, is a little too questionable for me to think they’d really give the Gators a challenge, even in Baton Rouge, so it’s off to the lock column with them. (Alabama might be questionable too, but the way they’ve been playing in conference play, maybe not.) | |||||||||
3 | Duke | ACC #1 | 1 – 3 – 9 | ||||||
23-2 | RPI: 7 | SOS: 37 | R/N: 9-2 | OOC: 13-1 | RPI T50: | 5-2 | Wv≥: 0 | Lv≤: 2 | |
Adding a pelt against North Carolina was important; getting a road win over Miami (FL) may have been more important, representing Duke’s first road win over the RPI Top 100. But it’s not enough; their only chance to prove they can beat a tourney lock on the road may be the rematch with the Tar Heels in the regular season finale. And people talk about the Kyle Singlers as one of five contenders for the top line! It’s looking like Duke has too questionable a schedule, and a conference, to justify their preseason #1 ranking. Duke’s best hope for a #1 seed is probably to completely win out, beating North Carolina another two times along the way, and hope for teams currently on the top two lines to lose. | |||||||||
3 | Wisconsin | B10 #2 | 1 – 3 – ? | ||||||
19-5 | RPI: 18 | SOS: 36 | R/N: 5-5 | OOC: 10-2 | RPI T50: | 5-3 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 5 | |
I’ll be honest, despite the Ohio State win I had misgivings about moving the Badgers up even a single seed line, and the only reason I moved them up two was because I wanted to punish Big East teams that lost. They can prove they deserve this lofty standing if they can repeat the Purdue win on the road (Wednesday 6:30pm ET, BTN), but if they lose expect them to fall back on Thursday. | |||||||||
4 | Syracuse | BST #5 | 1 – 4 – ? | ||||||
20-6 | RPI: 21 | SOS: 25 | R/N: 7-3 | OOC: 13-0 | RPI T50: | 3-4 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 5 | |
One step forward, two steps back. After a flawless nonconference, Syracuse is looking disturbingly inconsistent in conference play. They’ve shown flashes of their early-season dominance, for example against UConn, but they’re having trouble proving that their three conference wins weren’t flukes (though admittedly beating St. John’s on the road is a tall order for most Big East teams). Beating West Virginia (Monday 7pm ET, ESPN, already played) helps, but Syracuse will have to make most of their case for a good seed in the Big East Tournament, as that’ll be their only shot at avenging the Pitt loss. | |||||||||
4 | Louisville | BST #6 | 1 – 4 – ? | ||||||
19-6 | RPI: 25 | SOS: 34 | R/N: 3-4 | OOC: 11-2 | RPI T50: | 6-4 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 6 | |
Louisville’s week wasn’t as bad as Villanova’s (see below), as they picked up a big win over Syracuse, but losing to Notre Dame may have cost them against the Orange (and the Badgers) in the comparison. The win over UConn really looks very fluky, as all their road losses have come to teams with better RPIs than their next best road win over USF – including outside-the-top-100 Providence. But surely they can beat Cincinnati (Wednesday 7pm ET, ESPN), right? Or at least lessen the flukiness of the Connecticut win by beating them again at home (Friday 9pm ET, ESPN), right? | |||||||||
4 | Villanova | BST #7 | 1 – 4 – ? | ||||||
19-6 | RPI: 20 | SOS: 27 | R/N: 5-4 | OOC: 12-1 | RPI T50: | 5-4 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 4 | |
Losing to Pitt is acceptable, but losing to Rutgers in Jersey makes the Syracuse win look like more of a fluke, not less. Nova won’t get any chances to get a road win against a good team until Notre Dame and Pitt back-to-back at the end of the season, and it’s hard to see them doing that right now. Even another road game against Seton Hall (Tuesday 8pm ET, Big East Network) looks like a must-win right now. Villanova’s best chance to prove their bona fides might be at MSG. | |||||||||
4 | West Virginia | BST #8 | 1 – 4 – ? | ||||||
16-8 | RPI: 22 | SOS: 4 | R/N: 6-6 | OOC: 9-3 | RPI T50: | 4-5 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 7 | |
As it turns out, the Pitt loss keeps West Virginia from capitalizing on Villanova’s bad week. Now West Virginia’s season could be made or broken by three big games in ten days: on the road to Syracuse (Monday 7pm ET, ESPN, already played), hosting Notre Dame (Saturday 1pm ET, CBS), and at Pitt (Thursday 2/24 9pm ET, ESPN). Losing to Syracuse is a bad harbringer for the rest of the games, and could make their final two home games against UConn and Louisville must-wins for a respectable seed. | |||||||||
5 | Kentucky | SEC #2 | 1 – 5 – ? | ||||||
17-7 | RPI: 14 | SOS: 10 | R/N: 6-7 | OOC: 12-2 | RPI T50: | 5-5 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 6 | |
Kentucky beat Tennessee and lost to Vanderbilt, but it’s Wisconsin’s big win over Ohio State that knocks the Wildcats off their precarious top-four perch. The SEC turns out to have quite a bit of strength, but Kentucky will need to take advantage of that strength. They close the regular season hosting Florida and Vanderbilt and going on the road to Tennessee. Those games will not only determine Kentucky’s seed in the SEC Tournament, but their seed in the NCAAs as well. (Despite the question mark above, if they can avoid losing at Arkansas next week they should be pretty good for the top eight seed lines.) | |||||||||
5 | Purdue | B10 #3 | Probably in | ||||||
20-5 | RPI: 10 | SOS: 24 | R/N: 7-5 | OOC: 11-2 | RPI T50: | 3-4 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 5 | |
Purdue got a needed pelt by knocking off Illinois on the road, showing their resume has some meat on those bones. Purdue has good RPI but a disturbing loss to Richmond, but two big home tests this week against the top two teams in the conference (Wisconsin Wednesday 6:30pm ET, BTN, Ohio State Sunday 1pm ET, CBS) could get them locked into the field. | |||||||||
5 | Tennessee | SEC #3 | Probably in | ||||||
15-10 | RPI: 27 | SOS: 3 | R/N: 4-5 | OOC: 10-5 | RPI T50: | 6-4 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 7 | |
How do you take two losses in one week and not suffer for it? When the two losses were on the road to Kentucky and Florida. It is still a concern that Tennessee hasn’t backed up their big wins. Tennessee has given the likes of Pitt and Villanova some of their very few losses… and they have a whopping five losses against teams outside the RPI Top 70, against teams like College of Charleston and Oakland. Incidentially, only two of those bad losses have the Bruce Pearl suspension excuse, and only the two worst ones (Arkansas and Charlotte) were road games; the Vols managed to beat Vanderbilt at home and Georgia in Athens without their coach. Having missed two chances for big pelts, Tennessee will just have to play out the string. They host Georgia (Saturday 1pm ET, CBS) hoping to halt the hard charge of an upstart, and then hope for revenge at Vanderbilt (Tuesday 2/22 9pm ET, ESPN). | |||||||||
5 | Vanderbilt | SEC #4 | Probably in | ||||||
18-6 | RPI: 16 | SOS: 13 | R/N: 4-5 | OOC: 12-2 | RPI T50: | 4-4 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 5 | |
Kentucky is hardly Ohio State, but they do allow Vanderbilt to claim that the North Carolina win wasn’t more about the Tar Heels than the Commodores. Beating Georgia on the road (Wednesday 7pm ET, ESPNU) would consolidate Vandy’s position on the top five seed lines and the attendent bracketing benefits that provides. | |||||||||
6 | Texas A&M | B12 #3 | Probably in | ||||||
18-5 | RPI: 31 | SOS: 51 | R/N: 6-3 | OOC: 12-1 | RPI T50: | 4-3 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 3 | |
A&M look worse in the comparison with the SEC teams this week upon further review. Colorado and Texas Tech don’t provide the resume spark the Aggies needed. The Aggies don’t have an RPI Top 25 win and don’t get another shot at Texas until the conference tournament. At this point, any loss to a team that isn’t Kansas, Texas, or Missouri is poison to the Aggies’ relative standing on Selection Sunday. A&M is squarely on the bubble until they are clear of all the land mines on their schedule. | |||||||||
6 | Missouri | B12 #4 | Probably in | ||||||
18-6 | RPI: 26 | SOS: 53 | R/N: 4-6 | OOC: 13-1 | RPI T50: | 4-4 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 3 | |
Losses by teams below make Missouri look better in the comparison and prevent the Kansas loss from doing what little damage it might have done. That Missouri’s strength of schedule improved helps as well. But Missouri still needs to add depth to their resume, and their best chance to do that might be at the end of the season, with the home rematch with Kansas and the Big 12 Tournament. | |||||||||
6 | Minnesota | B10 #4 | Probably in | ||||||
17-8 | RPI: 36 | SOS: 28 | R/N: 6-5 | OOC: 11-1 | RPI T50: | 3-5 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 5 | |
Minnesota missed a chance to make up ground with the loss to Illinois and it now looks like Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Purdue have formed a solid top tier in the Big Ten, leaving the Gophers behind. Minnesota’s best true road win is still against Michigan, and the dropoff comes fast. The Gophers are cursing themselves for losing to Michigan State, and Virginia and Indiana are very concerning. Minnesota probably would have been a 5 last week before losing to Ohio State (certainly forgivable) and Indiana (a no-no). Minnesota needed Iowa to break a four-game losing streak, and could use a win over Penn State (Thursday 7pm ET, ESPN2) to escape the first round of the conference tournament and improve their road resume. | |||||||||
6 | North Carolina | ACC #2 | Probably in | ||||||
18-6 | RPI: 12 | SOS: 5 | R/N: 7-5 | OOC: 10-4 | RPI T50: | 3-5 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 4 | |
The Tar Heels couldn’t close out a huge win over rival Duke that could have locked them into the field. The real benefit may be the jump in UNC’s strength of schedule. The Heels have to feel good about their chances in the season-ending home rematch. Beating Clemson was good as well. | |||||||||
7 | St. John’s | BST #9 | Probably in | ||||||
15-9 | RPI: 17 | SOS: 1 | R/N: 6-6 | OOC: 8-4 | RPI T50: | 5-7 | Wv≥: 6 | Lv≤: 5 | |
Steve Lavin’s team picked up another massive pelt against UConn (ho-hum at this point) and dispatched Cincinnati to consolidate their position within the conference and make the West Virginia win look less like a fluke on their road resume. Both games add needed depth to their resume. The Johnnies can add another pelt to their road resume against Marquette (Tuesday 9pm ET, ESPNU). Then will come the ultimate test of St. John’s home-court advantage: Pitt (Saturday noon ET, ESPN). | |||||||||
7 | UNLV | MWC #3 | Probably in | ||||||
18-7 | RPI: 27 | SOS: 30 | R/N: 9-3 | OOC: 12-2 | RPI T50: | 2-6 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 2 | |
One thing UNLV has going for them: they play well on the road. The Rebels don’t have many good wins, but combine their good road record with UC Santa Barbara being their only truly bad loss and they’re in pretty good shape. Being in the Mountain West, though, a single slip-up could kill them. All their remaining games would cause at least a seed’s worth of damage with a loss, and after losing to San Diego State, they will need to be on their guard all the way to the conference tournament. | |||||||||
7 | Illinois | B10 #5 | Probably in | ||||||
16-9 | RPI: 39 | SOS: 21 | R/N: 5-7 | OOC: 10-3 | RPI T50: | 3-5 | Wv≥: 3 | Lv≤: 5 | |
Illinois is likely getting into the field after a big road win over Minnesota helps make home wins over North Carolina and the new giant-killers Wisconsin look less like flukes. Not that losses to Indiana, UIC, or recently to Northwestern aren’t still head-scratchers, but Illinois has proven now that they can be the real deal when push comes to shove. Games against the Michigan schools (Michigan Wednesday 8:30pm ET, BTN, @Michigan State Saturday 9pm ET, ESPN) will serve to help further deepen the resume in preparation for a big road trip to Columbus (Tuesday 2/22 7pm ET, ESPN). | |||||||||
7 | Cincinnati | BST #10 | Probably in | ||||||
19-6 | RPI: 52 | SOS: 108 | R/N: 6-4 | OOC: 13-0 | RPI T50: | 2-6 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 1 | |
Cincinnati is tough to read, as all their losses have come against the Big East’s top tier and they have a win over St. John’s under their belt, but Xavier is their only other win against the RPI Top 60. Clearly, the Bearcats will suffer because of their schedule. Failing to win the rematch against St. John’s doesn’t help matters. The Bearcats need to bounce back against Louisville (Wednesday 7pm ET, ESPN2) and show that the Bearcats aren’t just beneficiaries of a weak nonconference. | |||||||||
8 | Old Dominion | CAA #1 | Barely in | ||||||
20-6 | RPI: 27 | SOS: 62 | R/N: 9-4 | OOC: 9-2 | RPI T50: | 2-3 | Wv≥: 0 | Lv≤: 5 | |
Beating Virginia Commonwealth adds depth to Old Dominion’s resume, and helps them in the conference, but there’s still something lacking. Drawing Cleveland State in BracketBusters (Sunday 1pm ET, ESPN2) probably helps the Vikings, who don’t have and desperately need a single RPI Top 40, more than one RPI Top 80, or a road RPI Top 100 win, more than the Monarchs, though the Vikings will provide a much-needed RPI Top 40 win and won’t hurt them too much with a loss. The Monarchs will practice for that game by hosting Georgia State (Tuesday 7pm ET, CSS). | |||||||||
8 | Temple | A10 #1 | Barely in | ||||||
19-5 | RPI: 33 | SOS: 98 | R/N: 8-5 | OOC: 10-3 | RPI T50: | 2-3 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 3 | |
Xavier has higher RPI and is getting more dap from the media, and they did beat Temple at home, but that happens to be the Musketeers’ best win; they don’t have a win of the caliber of Georgetown on their resume. I reserve the right to change my mind on this later, of course. They won’t meet again until the conference tournament, but in the meantime Temple can fend off challengers for A-10 positioning, starting with Richmond (Thursday 7pm ET, CBS CS). | |||||||||
8 | UCLA | PAC #1 | Barely in | ||||||
18-7 | RPI: 35 | SOS: 38 | R/N: 4-5 | OOC: 9-4 | RPI T50: | 2-4 | Wv≥: 2 | Lv≤: 5 | |
At long last, the first Pac-10 team on the ladder! We only had to go through, what, ten Big East teams to get to this point? A team with seven losses, a losing road/neutral record, and a losing record against good teams, and not only do wins over BYU and St. John’s propel them above their brethren, they might actually win the conference with only Arizona ahead of them at the moment! It would help, of course, if the Bruins could actually beat the Wildcats, which they’ll have another chance for in a couple of weeks. | |||||||||
8 | Georgia | SEC #5 | Barely in | ||||||
17-7 | RPI: 42 | SOS: 40 | R/N: 7-4 | OOC: 11-3 | RPI T50: | 2-7 | Wv≥: 1 | Lv≤: 2 | |
All of Georgia’s seven losses have come against teams in the top 35 in the RPI; it’s a rarity to have no bad losses this far down. So what’s the problem? They can’t win any of those games against good opposition. They have a home win over Kentucky, which sort of shows they have more than just consistency, but their only other RPI Top 60 win is against UAB. Worse, Ole Miss is not only their best road win, it’s their only other RPI Top 90 win. If Georgia can pick up a few more pelts they’ll be in better shape. The good news is they’ll have chances in the SEC; they face the Tennessee schools this week (Vanderbilt Wednesday 7pm ET, ESPNU, @Tennessee Saturday 1pm ET, CBS) and head to Gainesville after that (Thursday 2/24 7pm ET, ESPN). The bad news is, can they get the wins they need against the SEC’s top teams? |