Not too early to think about penetrating the sphere. If that's not possible, then it's probably the season to let the bubbles go while bathing.
The ACC being pretty bad should help this year.No more then 6 teams from big ten.Not sure about big 12 and Sec.I don't think the pac ten is very good this year either.
Soft but somewhat unpredictable as well. No one knows how the committee will reward those extra slots. Will the Big East really get 11? Doubtful. Will they get 9, probably. 10? Maybe.
Pac Ten will get more than 2 this year. ACC is not great.
SEC West is awful, so may only be 3 or 4 teams from the East making it there this year. Eyeball wise on the Pac 10, Chicos, I don't think anybody besides UW and U of A should make it from the Pac 10 this year, though I haven't seen a ton of UCLA yet (will watch them in full Thursday). The SJU at UCLA game could be key in the BE getting an extra bid or the Pac 10 getting an extra bid. SJU maybe upsetting Duke next weekend would obviously help the league down the line, too.
Keep praying troops. We need 11-7 and some quality wins.
Butler lost again to Milwaukee today. Colorado lost to Oklahoma yesterday. Nebraska lost to Texas Tech, Iowa State got blasted by Missouri, OK State got killed by Baylor, ODU lost at home to VCU etc etc.
Soft and getting softer as usual.
the bubble is hard or soft depending on the talent.
We'd better pray it's soft. And a bunch of teams WIN their conf. tournaments. Because right now we have VERY LITTLE to offer the committee.
Quote from: lab_warrior on January 23, 2011, 10:24:35 PM
We'd better pray it's soft. And a bunch of teams WIN their conf. tournaments. Because right now we have VERY LITTLE to offer the committee.
We can play the role of the rabbit like they have in European long distance running races. We're there to get the other team in a good lather, race out to a big lead and then collapse at the end just like the rabbit does.
I kid, I kid.
Judging by the fact that we went 1-1 this week(dominated a crappy team, and played a tourney team tough on road) and managed to raise from the play in game to a 10 seed, pretty much proves this bubble blows.
Good for us though.
Win the big home games this week and we may be locks as crazy as it sounds
In the unlikely event that we beat both UConn and Syracuse this week, that would give us two real quality wins to add to the wins over ND & WVU and we could start talking about being a tourney team if we don't slip up the rest of the way.
Quote from: ChicosBailBonds on January 23, 2011, 11:24:49 PM
We can play the role of the rabbit like they have in European long distance running races. We're there to get the other team in a good lather, race out to a big lead and then collapse at the end just like the rabbit does.
I kid, I kid.
Chicos is right.
The key for us, is the at least get ONE of these games this week, and get at least ONE of the quality roadies remaining, and dominate the last part of our schedule (aka NO losses to anybody in the bottom tier).
Some thoughts from Palm on the bracket right now ...
Only once in the previous 18 years has the ACC not been a top-three league. This year, the ACC is fifth, behind even the Mountain West. Duke is a national title contender. It's hard to find anything but middle-of-the-bracket or worse teams beyond that.
The (SEC) West? If it were a league unto itself, it would rank 15th, behind the Ivy League.
The Pac 10 is better this year, but still not good. The Huskies played three good non-conference foes and went 0-3. The same thing is true of Arizona, which is in the top 25 of the RPI simply because it managed to avoid playing too many 200+ RPI teams.
Gonzaga? The Zags got swept at USF and Santa Clara this weekend.
St. Mary's? Crushed a Vanderbilt this weekend. The Gaels have a home win over St. John's and not much else.
Butler? Lost at home to UW Milwaukee, making it a season sweep for the Panthers. That's already four losses to 100+ RPI teams, two at home.
The Missouri Valley? Normally a staple in the at-large pool, but the league has only one top 50 RPI non-conference win - Evansville at Butler. Northern Iowa has a couple top 100 non-conference wins, but they are currently in 4th place in the league.
The Mountain West is doing well of course, and the Atlantic 10 may scrounge a couple at-large bids, but it's hard to see where the quality is coming from to fill the bottom of a bracket this year. So last week, when I said, "I don't think there will be 11 Big East teams in the final bracket in March," I may have jumped the gun. The committee has to take somebody.