Who to root for this week

We officially have our first win over the field.

St. Francis completes an epic run through the NEC tournament by beating one of the hottest teams in the country Central Connecticut (14 game win streak and the nation's longest) on their home court! 

Truly an incredible upset when you consider where these teams sat prior to tonight. St. Francis was 317 in Ken Pom and Central Connecticut 178. 

It always feels weird to root against non-con opponents but it is definitely time to do so with respect to UNC and Cinci. UNC is above us on the bubble and owns the head-to-head. Cinci is much more of a long shot but a win over Iowa State would be huge and they also own the head-to-head. Plus Cinci is an SOS wash anyway because ISU is a common opponent. Go Cyclones, go Fighting Irish.

Other non-con rooting interests:
Go Northwestern (they play Minnesota at 3:30)
Go UNLV (they play Air Force at 7)

Other bubble rooting interests:
Go Gamecocks (they play Arkansas at 1)
Go Vandy (they play Texas at 3:30)
Go McNeese (Southland Final at 5)

Go Iowa (they play Ohio St. at 6)

Go Kansas St. (they play Baylor at 7)

Go Seton Hall (they play Villanova at 9)

Go Georgia (they play Oklahoma at 9:30)

Other things to keep an eye on:
• we want Liberty to either lose right away or win the CUSA tourney (they are pretty fringe at this point but the weaker the bubble the better)
• LSU over MSU (MSU is in right now, but I've seen them in person and they stink + an early exit to a bad team might make them bubbly)
• You could make the same argument above for Georgia but we want them to knockout Oklahoma so go Bulldogs 
• SMU vs Syracuse (SMU is out at this point but we don’t want to see them make a run so go Orange)

Also, this seems obvious to me but we should root for the better rated teams in the A10 tourney. A rising tide lifts all boats. 

Lunardi has moved us up from 8th out to 5th out. There is a path of we seize it.

Does anyone else find it a little weird to be watching ACC and Big 12 games on the Tuesday of conference tournament week?

It just doesn't feel right.

Cincinnati is cooked. Arkansas up 11 on USC mid-2nd. UNC-ND tipping in 5 minutes. 

Getting rid of UC was big. If they made a Big12 run the win over UD would have been used against us.

Which bubble teams do we root for?  Texas plays Vandy?  OK plays GA?

Bad news: UNC, Texas, and Arkansas won. Baylor is crushing Kansas St. UNLV is down at half to Air Force. 

Good news: NW won. McNeese won. Iowa beat Ohio St. 

Weird news: Fordham curb stomped Rhode Island. 

Bad news: Villanova crushed Seton Hall

Good news: Georgia is beating Oklahoma as I type this up. Thursday is about to be electric. Tons of important games for 12+ hours straight. I chose not to do actual game times because they are too spread out, so I just listed as 2-hour chunks. * denotes a HUGE game.

Noon slot: We want Iowa St. over BYU, SBU over Duquesne, Oregon over Indiana*, Ole Miss over Arkansas*,

2 O’clock: NW over Wisconsin, SLU over Davidson, Texas A&M over Texas*, Marquette over Xavier**, Wake Forest over UNC (bit of a wash)

4 O’clock: GW over Fordham, SDSU over Boise*

6 O’clock: Texas Tech over Baylor*, SJU over La Salle, Western Michigan over Kent St., NMSU over Kennesaw St.

8 O’clock: Nevada over Colorado St.*, UConn over whoever, Clemson over SMU* (SMU up 10 as of this writing), UK over OU (if nec.)

10 O’clock: UNLV over Utah St.**

** denotes a doubly HUGE game because they are a non-con opponent playing a fellow bubble team.

Bad news: Oklahoma ended up beating Georgia last night. 

Good news: great start to today's action. Bonnies over Dukes (took quite the comeback) and Oregon snuffs out Indiana. Iowa State currently has a slight edge on BYU mid-2nd half. Ole Miss is up 8 on Arkansas at half. 

I watched the end of the Xavier game, Marquette was up by 3 iinm more than once over about the last 10 seconds. They fouled X on purpose at least twice over the last 10 seconds in order to prevent a game-tying 3.

I did not like how we didn't foul at the end of the VCU game in the same situation.

Shulga's tying 3 almost went in.

Clemson comes back late to beat SMU. We needed SMU to lose They were 20 spots ahead of us in the NET, but had no Q1 wins. That may have stuck a fork in them.

UNC beat Wake Forest. This was a bubble matchup but UNC had the better resume' and much better NET. Wake was in that group of 8 teams with UD sort of trying to fight their way in to the last at-large. This result probably help us in terms of carving a wider path to sneak in if we win at least 2 A10 tourney games.

VCU taking care of business so far. Liberty is also playing in this time slot, down 10 early. 

2PM: Go SLU, Go Tennessee (absolutely cannot have another Texas win)

5PM: Go Mason, Go Marquette (6:30 tip)

7PM: Go Tulsa (North Texas is pretty fringe but why not eliminate all competition?), Go Flyers, Go Duke 

9PM: Go UC Santa Barbara, Go New Mexico, Go UConn 

11:30PM: Go Cal Poly (under no circumstances do we want a UC San Diego/UC Irvine Final)

Utah St./Colorado St. is maybe a wash, but Utah State seems to be ahead of us while CSU is more of a competitor with us so I would say root for the Aggies here.

Lunardi bumped UD up a spot and we're now #4 in the First Four Out category.  CBS has moved us to #2 in the First Four Out. Two wins might get us IN the First Four, but three wins guarantees we avoid it altogether.

Down goes Texas. Liberty advances to the CUSA final. Mason down four at half to GW. 

Mason up 6...15 minutes left in the game

Mason up 18...6 minutes left

Mason is going to win...up 17 with 1 minute remaining

None of it matters now!

Nope. And it’s a shame, because the games today were mostly falling in line.

Glad I can quit worrying about if Arizona Poly Institute is going to beat Oregon University of Nimrods. My life will improve.