I'm slacking on my rankings ... It's too nice outside!

Alright, well I didn't get my brackets up yesterday as I had planned, but the weather was so nice outside that I had to go out and not spend the whole day all cooped up in the indoors any more. Today was the same story. Now, as the storm clouds roll in, here is what I have come up with prior to Tuesday night's games:

Nine conferences (including the Ivy league) have wrapped up their respective conference tournaments. Each winning team received their automatic bid. These teams are as follows:

Cornell (Ivy)
Radford (Big South)
E. Tenn. State (Atlantic Sun)
Morehead State (OVC)
Northern Iowa (MVC)
Gonzaga (WCC)
VCU (CAA)
Siena (MAAC)
Chattanoga (Southern)

There's a couple of surprises here, and bubble teams are not happy with surprises in the mid-major conferences. Creighton lost out in the semifinal game against Illinois State who then lost to Northern Iowa. This does one of two things: 1) Creighton is most likely NIT-bound, or 2) it knocks out one bubble team if Creighton does somehow get in the NCAA tournament. The same thing happened in the Southern conference. Davidson is surely headed to the NIT tournament, so bubble teams can breathe a little easier as Davidson wrote their own ticket out of the bubble watch.

Luckily for the bubble teams, Siena and Gonzaga easily won their respective conference tournament. Gonzaga was considered a lock to get in, so bubble teams were happy to see that the WCC won't be sending two teams (unless St. Mary's receives an at-large bid on their own). In the MAAC, Siena would have been in consideration for an at-large bid if they happened to lose their conference tournament, but they won't have to sweat it out until Sunday as they have their bid for sure now. Bubble teams rejoice!

I've revamped my bubble listing, and it goes as follows (most likely to get in to least likely to get in as an at-large team):

1. Dayton
2. Ohio State
3. Boston College
4. Wisconsin
5. Texas A&M
6. Oklahoma State
7. New Mexico
8. Utah State
9. Michigan
10. Minnesota
11. Penn State
12. St. Mary’s
13. UNLV
14. South Carolina
15. Arizona

I have Utah State in bold, because they can play their way off of this list and into the tournament by winning the WAC conference tournament. This leaves these teams on the outside looking in (from first snubbed to last snubbed):

1. Providence
2. Rhode Island
3. Northwestern
4. San Diego State
5. Creighton
6. Temple
7. Kansas State
8. Florida
9. Davidson

I'm keeping Davidson on the watch just because the selection committee might put them in due to the fact that the nation might want to watch Curry in the national spotlight again, but I doubt that happens.

Providence didn't get any help from Cincinnati last night as the Bearcats lost to DePaul, the bottom feeders of the Big East. If Cincy would have won, Providence would have had a little better win to their resume than that of the Blue Demons. I think that Providence has to beat Louisville in order to get in. If not, they are NIT-bound.

Northwestern plays Minnesota in the 8/9 game in the Big Ten tournament. This is a big game for both teams, as Northwestern (who I previously did have in the tournament) needs two wins to be seriously considered for an at-large bid, and Minnesota definitely doesn't need a loss to Northwestern to haunt them going into Selection Sunday. Minnesota could easily drop out of the bubble rankings with a loss to the Wildcats. The winner gets to face Michigan State. If either team beats State in that game, consider them a lock.

With that, here is my bracket for March 10th:

I did have a change in the top seeds, although it was just flip-flopping North Carolina and Pittsburg as the overall number one seed. They will both get the same regional that they had previously, and I don't see them losing their number one seeds even with an early loss in their respective conference tournaments.

I'll try to do better tomorrow...