bukie

Also of note, every 1 seed from a single bid league won yesterday to make their conference final. That means there are 11 1-seeds playing today with a chance to win their auto bid, which has never happened before. So far, only 6 1-bid 1 seeds have lost in their conference tourneys, which could make things interesting in the NIT selection.

#30: Cubs Jump on Kershaw Early in Game 6 Why on the list? - The Cubs came into game 6 with an opportunity to do something they hadn't done for 71 years, to win the pennant. They had this opportunity a couple times before, one time in particular that the announcers couldn't stop talking about. The crowd was excited but nervous because of the history, and because the best pitcher in the game was on the other side. However, the Cubs jumped on Kershaw right away in the first, with 4 well hit balls to the outfield for the first four hitters. Fowler hit one that Reddick had a good view of from 15 feet away, Bryant hit one in about the same spot but harder, Rizzo followed the old adage "hit it where they are", and it worked out like it had for most of the series, as Toles dropped it for a 2-base error, and then Zobrist tried the same but they caught it. By the end of it, though, the Cubs had scored 2 runs and the crowd was rocking from there for the rest of the night.

Things of note: - Oregon is way underseeded here compared to the bracket matrix, but there's no bias involved in the selection, so part of it is their profile is just not that strong in comparison to other teams. The weak Pac-12 hurts their top 50 profile. It's really no better than Wichita State's profile. - Movement among the seeds we already have is still possible, as profiles do keep changing as teams keep winning in conference tournaments, but again keep in mind that the placement thus far was just based on profile, not team name, so if someone thinks Oregon, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky, or Notre Dame should move up, we should compare their profiles to the teams above them. - I'll get a blind poll set up for those last 22 teams this morning.

So, let's put it all together as to what we've got: S-Curve: 1. Kansas 2. Gonzaga 3. Villanova 4. Baylor 5. North Carolina 6. West Virginia 7. Louisville 8. Kentucky 9. Florida 10. Virginia 11. Purdue 12. UCLA 13. Florida State 14. Duke 15. Butler 16. Wichita State 17. Oregon 18. SMU 19. Iowa State 20. St. Mary's 21. Maryland 22. Arizona 23. Notre Dame 24. Cincinnati ... 47. MWC (Nevada) 48. UNC-Wilmington - CAA 49. CUSA (Middle Tennessee) 50. Sun Belt (UT Arlington) 51. East Tennessee State - SoCon 52. Ivy (Princeton) 53. America East (Vermont) 54. Florida Gulf Coast - ASun 55. Bucknell - Patriot 56. MAC (Akron) 57. Winthrop - Big South 58. WAC (New Mexico State) 59. Iona - MAAC 60. Northern Kentucky - Horizon 61. Jacksonville State - OVC 62. Big West (UC Irvine) 63. South Dakota State - Summit 64. Big Sky (North Dakota) 65. Southland (New Orleans) 66. MEAC (UNC Central) 67. SWAC (Texas Southern) 68. Mount St. Mary's - NEC That leaves 22 teams left to sort out: Arkansas Creighton Dayton Kansas State Marquette Miami Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Northwestern Oklahoma State Providence Rhode Island Seton Hall South Carolina Syracuse VCU (A-10 Bid) Vandy Virginia Tech Wake Forest Wisconsin Xavier And 11 teams currently missing out: Illinois State USC California Houston TCU Illinois Indiana Iowa Utah Georgia Texas A&M Of those only Arkansas is still alive in their conference tournament (Alabama is also to spoil a bid). The A-10 bid could also still be stolen by Richmond or Davidson. The remaining 6 multi-bid leagues can only be won by teams already in the field.

Here's the 13-24 section of the S-curve: 13. G - Florida State 14. F - Duke 15. B - Butler 16. R - Wichita State 17. N - Oregon 18. O - SMU 19. H - Iowa State 20. Q - St. Mary's 21. I - Maryland 22. A - Arizona 23. L - Notre Dame 24. C - Cincinnati

Also, Princeton gets hilariously screwed this year, since it's the first year the Ivy is having a tournament, so they don't get the bid despite sweeping the conference and winning it by 4 games over second-place Harvard and 8 games over 4th-place Penn. On top of that, their reward is to play Penn at Penn in the tournament opener.

Of course, if any of those potentials lose, the runner up would probably get bumped down the list depending on profile. Also, despite the SWAC and MEAC being in the bottom 4, only one of those conference representatives will be in the first four.

So, here's the bottom of the S-Curve: 47. II - MWC (Nevada) 48. SS - UNC-Wilmington - CAA 49. GG - CUSA (Middle Tennessee) 50. TT - Sun Belt (UT Arlington) 51. CC - East Tennessee State - SoCon 52. NN - Ivy (Princeton) 53. UU - America East (Vermont) 54. DD - Florida Gulf Coast - ASun 55. BB - Bucknell - Patriot 56. AA - MAC (Akron) 57. VV - Winthrop - Big South 58. JJ - WAC (New Mexico State) 59. EE - Iona - MAAC 60. MM - Northern Kentucky - Horizon 61. FF - Jacksonville State - OVC 62. QQ - Big West (UC Irvine) 63. OO - South Dakota State - Summit 64. LL - Big Sky (North Dakota) 65. KK - Southland (New Orleans) 66. RR - MEAC (UNC Central) 67. PP - SWAC (Texas Southern) 68. HH - Mount St. Mary's - NEC

My thoughts on Single bids: GG-TT-SS-II-BB-NN-DD-CC-UU-AA-VV-JJ-EE-MM-QQ-FF-LL-KK-OO-RR-PP-HH Blind bid 13-24: G-B-F-I-R-H-O-N-L-K-C-A-Q-S-P-M-J-D-E Remaining at large potentials: Miami FL Wake Forest Northwestern Marquette Vanderbilt Michigan State Xavier Arkansas Illinois State Virginia Tech VCU Seton Hall Providence Kansas State USC

A Arenado B Bryant B Rizzo C Trout C Harper C Russell D Zobrist D Baez D Contreras D Fowler D Soler WC seeeeecret

We still need about 10-14 teams to fill out the field from the team's left on the board. Once we have a rough s-curve formed we'll have open discussion of specific placements if things look weird. It's easier to compare, say, 4 teams than 20.

Probably hurts the Big Ten's chances of getting a top 4 seeded team doesn't it? We'll, the conference doesn't get issued a seed, so it's up to how good Purdues profile is. Michigan is shooting up the ratings, so an OT loss isn't really damaging.

Dayton and Purdue both lost in their conference quarters, which is a bigger deal for the A10 since they were the only current lock we had.

Travis Wood catches that ball.

...for a second-year-service player. The Cubs signed Bryant for $1.05 million for this year, breaking the record for second year players previously held by Mike Trout at $1 million.

So what to do today... - Figure out the next 12 teams via the blind poll - Figure out the bottom of the bracket auto bids - Figure out which 7-15 teams still on the board should be in the tournament (pending outcomes of ACC, American, A10, Big 12, Big East, B1G, Pac12 and SEC tournaments)

Here's the next blind poll for seeds 13-24 on the at-large curve: Team AdjEM 1-25 26-50 51-100101-20200+ R/N Conf A +21.97 1-4 2-0 6-0 14-0 4-0 13-3 +9.90 B +20.94 4-0 7-3 5-4 2-0 3-1 10-5 +14.75 C +22.48 2-2 3-0 5-2 8-0 9-0 9-4 +6.11 D +19.89 1-2 3-3 8-3 6-0 4-0 11-4 +14.75 E +16.34 0-1 2-2 8-0 5-3 8-0 9-5 +4.30 F +24.29 5-4 7-3 4-0 5-1 4-0 10-7 +17.28 G +23.05 4-2 9-2 1-2 6-1 5-0 7-7 +17.28 H +21.82 5-6 6-2 3-2 1-0 6-0 9-7 +19.32 I +15.47 2-2 5-1 7-3 5-1 4-0 11-2 +13.81 J +21.40 3-2 4-6 4-3 5-0 5-0 6-8 +13.81 K +16.59 2-3 5-3 6-2 6-0 4-0 6-5 +13.81 L +21.11 3-7 6-0 4-1 5-0 6-0 8-6 +17.28 M +22.11 2-8 6-2 5-1 2-0 4-0 9-7 +19.32 N +23.97 2-2 2-0 11-2 7-0 5-0 11-4 +9.90 O +25.02 1-2 3-0 6-2 9-0 7-0 9-4 +6.11 P +17.94 2-2 1-3 12-4 2-0 4-0 7-6 +12.33 Q +24.66 0-3 1-0 4-1 9-0 14-0 13-2 +1.25 R +26.41 0-2 2-2 4-0 12-0 11-0 14-3 +2.08 S +21.57 1-3 7-3 6-2 4-0 5-0 8-6 +13.81

Big board as of morning of 3/10: Here are the current auto bids (12 of 32 set): Blind Pool Results: 1. K - Kansas 2. L - Gonzaga 3. C - Villanova 4. Q - Baylor 5. H - North Carolina 6. A - West Virginia 7. I - Louisville 8. J - Kentucky 9. M - Florida 10. B - Virginia 11. F - Purdue 12. D - UCLA Next blind poll for spots 13-24 (seeds 4-6): Remaining at large pool (27 potentials for 7 to 15 bids):

#31: Bryant Starts the Scoring Early in Game 1 Why on the list? - In the NLDS, Game 1 was a tense, low-scoring affair with no scoring until the 8th. Bryant made sure the NLCS didn't start the same way, doubling immediately in the 1st inning to score Fowler and get the crowd rolling early. It wasn't a HR, but it was hit in a good spot..towards the Dodgers defense.

As for the next 12 that I think should be considered: Wichita State Butler St. Mary's Iowa State Oklahoma State Michigan Wisconsin Notre Dame Creighton Minnesota Dayton South Carolina

Here's the nitty gritty for the single bid leagues (best profile inserted when auto bid isn't set yet): Team AdjEM 1-25 26-50 51-100 101-200200+ R/N Conf AA +6.45 0-1 0-1 0-0 15-2 9-3 12-5 -0.45 BB +8.71 0-0 1-2 1-1 3-4 21-1 11-6 -5.30 CC +11.55 0-0 0-1 0-2 13-4 11-0 14-5 -0.21 DD +5.21 0-2 0-1 2-0 3-3 18-1 10-4 -6.46 EE +3.96 0-1 0-0 1-3 8-3 12-5 14-8 -3.41 FF +0.61 0-0 0-2 1-2 3-4 14-6 15-9 -4.74 GG +14.01 0-0 1-1 4-0 10-3 12-0 15-2 -3.80 HH -4.22 0-3 0-2 0-2 1-3 18-5 8-11 -10.65 II +12.83 0-1 0-0 4-3 12-2 10-0 13-5 +3.09 JJ +6.32 0-0 0-0 0-1 9-4 14-0 10-4 -4.30 KK -1.04 0-1 0-1 0-1 1-3 14-5 7-8 -8.37 LL -0.61 0-0 0-0 0-1 5-4 12-4 9-7 -8.00 MM +1.30 0-1 0-0 1-2 5-4 16-3 12-8 -3.48 NN +11.90 0-0 0-1 1-3 6-2 13-0 11-5 -2.90 OO -1.31 0-1 0-0 0-2 10-10 6-3 7-14 -2.09 PP -3.12 0-4 0-1 0-1 2-3 19-2 11-11 -17.58 QQ +2.23 0-2 0-0 0-5 3-1 13-5 8-11 -9.31 RR +0.13 0-0 0-0 0-1 2-4 18-3 12-6 -17.13 SS +12.36 0-0 0-1 4-2 13-2 10-0 16-4 +0.52 TT +10.60 1-0 0-2 1-0 8-5 12-0 11-7 -1.14 UU +12.36 0-1 0-2 0-1 12-0 14-0 13-4 -6.34 VV +4.76 0-1 0-1 1-0 6-2 17-2 12-3 -8.63 Like I said before...yeesh.

Here's how I see the blind poll: L-K-C-H-Q-A-I-M-F-N-O-J-B-D-G-P-E-R

Well it's 91 Canadian so you still need to do the conversion.

Duke, Purdue and Arizona are already among the 18 teams in the blind poll

BPs local Chicago writers are basically hot garbage anyway, not sure why she'd be any different.