« UK fans don’t speed through Tennessee.
Ha Ha »

Start sweating

By Travis

 

The NCAA Tournament bubble felt a lot more comfortable on Thursday — even Friday as late as 9 p.m. And even though all the Bracketologists seem to have already made UK a lock before Saturday afternoon’s shamockery against Georgia, I’m still on pins and needles.

The way I figure, prior to Sunday’s championship games there are already at least 17 automatic bids taken up by bubble teams or lower: George Mason, Oral Roberts, San Diego, Cornell, Siena, Belmont, Cal State-Fullerton, Austin Peay, Boise State, Maryland-Baltimore County, Portland State, American, Winthrop, Texas-Arlington, Mount Saint Mary’s, Coppin State and Mississippi Valley State.

That means the top 48 teams should make the 65-team tournament.

So, I tried to objectively rank all the teams that might gain ANY consideration, and you can see the rankings after the jump.

 

My unqualified rankings:

1. North Carolina *
2. Memphis *
3. UCLA *
4. Kansas
5. Tennessee
6. Duke
7. Texas
8. Georgetown
9. Wisconsin
10. Stanford
11. Pitt *
12. Louisville
13. Xavier
14. Vanderbilt
15. Drake *
16. Indiana
17. Michigan State
18. Butler
19. Marquette
20. UConn
21. Notre Dame
22. Purdue
23. Clemson
24. Washington State
25. WVU
26. USC
27. UNLV *
28. BYU
29. Kent State *
30. Miami (Fla.)
31. Gonzaga
32. St Marys
33. Oklahoma
34. Mississippi State
35. Arkansas
36. Temple *
37. Texas A&M
38. South Alabama
39. Western Ky *
40. Davidson *
41. Kansas State
42. Saint Joseph’s
43. Baylor
44. Illinois State
45. UMass
46. Dayton
47. UAB
48. Kentucky

49. New Mexico
50. Arizona
51. Villanova
52. Ohio State
53. Mississippi
54. Oral Roberts *
55. VCU
56. Oregon
57. Florida
58. Creighton
59. George Mason *
60. Syracuse
61. Arizona State
62. Virginia Tech
63. Florida State

San Diego *
Cornell *
Siena *
Belmont *
Cal State-Fullerton *
Austin Peay *
Boise State *
Maryland-Baltimore County *
Portland State *
American *
Winthrop *
Texas-Arlington *
Mount Saint Mary’s *
Coppin State *
Mississippi Valley State *

I hope I’m too objective, because that would put UK in serious danger — right on the brink of the bubble.

To make matters worse, Georgia and Illinois could crush UK and other bubble hopes more if either (or both) of them wins its conference title on Sunday afternoon. Neither would make the NCAA Tournament without an automatic bid, but Illinois plays likely No. 2 seed Wisconsin and Georgia plays likely sixth-seeded Arkansas. (Of course, this is just my opinion.)

They could bump UK to as low as 50th in my personal rankings. But I’m far from an expert, and guys like Joe Lunardi have mid-majors like Dayton, UMass, St. Joseph’s, Illinois State and even the Big XII’s Baylor ranked behind the Cats. So, hopefully, my projections are wrong in the right direction. Regardless, I’ll be rooting for Arkansas and Wisconsin this afternoon and nervously, pessimistically await the selection show on CBS. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Blue Goggles, College Basketball, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Start sweating”

  1. Travis Says:
    March 16th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    Well, I’m on the even more pessimistic side, now. I just have a feeling the committee — against all of its insistance that such things don’t factor in their decisions — will not want a sixth Southeastern Conference team in the field. And thanks to Georgia and their home court advantage, I think they just bumped the Cats out.

    I pray I’m wrong.

  2. jeb Says:
    March 16th, 2008 at 7:31 pm

    Wow, I hope its not this close again for a long time.

Leave a Reply