bukie

Virginia didn't make a great case today. Iowa's the only team left on the outside that could improve their case yet. Alabama's win could get them back into the conversation, maybe. I still believe that if the committee truly uses KP as a tool, MTSU is definitely in.

Also, at the end of games today, it's about time to start taking serious notice of potential bid thieves and where they'd slot in if they stole an auto bid. Teams like the Southern Miss/UTEP winner, Utah if they win tonight, half the SEC, etc.

Tennessee vs. Alabama. Whoever wins, you lose.

I keep wondering if there's a logical reason they're so successful within the conference every year and yet so lousy outside of it.

@JohnGasaway If you need someone to beat the stuffing out of an opponent outside the top 75, call Florida.

Butler is #54 on KP. This is why we do everything by committee here, so nobody's singular opinion rules. A consensus of 7 people decided St. Louis wasn't among the top 4 seeds, so they aren't.

I'll say this much about them, they haven't given up yet despite almost nothing going right in the first half.

They're too focused on not getting rebounds.

On the plus side, they couldn't score for the first 10 minutes against Minny, either.

I've seen worse uniforms already worn by Michigan this week.

I have problems running it on Chrome but it works in explorer (the only thing I use that browser for). Yeah, I started using IE for ESPN3 after it lagged pitifully on Firefox. For whatever reason it works ok in IE. Because any web developer that wants to develop for a wide audience absolutely has to support IE over anything else.

It really depends on who the 5 seeds are at this point (although it wouldn't be Pitt either, so Syracuse would probably have to get moved regardless).

St. Louis has 2 top 50 wins (VCU, New Mexico) and one loss outside the top 150 (Rhode Island). Coupled with a weaker non conference schedule, I think they're about where they deserve to be right now, just outside the top 4 seeds and in the 5-6-7 mix.

Then people aren't paying attention. I haven't had time to do anything the last couple of days, but St. Louis will be getting robbed with anything lower than a 4 seed. I think this bracket is bound to miss badly on them. If they win the A-10 tourney, I would be slightly surprised if they don't get bumped to the 3 line. St. Louis was in the last top 12, and so wasn't even in that vote. You're ranting about nothing.

There's a little known unstated rule that the committee will never put both the MEAC and the SWAC representatives in the play-in game. With the MEAC imploding so badly they should donate their bid to the Great West, I have a feeling they'll get the short straw this season.

The first top 12 was similar, but this latest round had wildly variant answers. For the "next 12" selection, nobody had a score above 0.75 (1 is full agreement at the top), and I had to break a tie between Colorado State, Missouri and Minnesota (Colorado State won tiebreak due to being first in someone's ranking..and they tied for 8th in the rankings overall).

I figured 4 was good enough for additional consideration, but if anybody thinks we should consider anyone else, speak up (the next team in the list was Akron, actually). Next step: 1) Bracket/pod the rest of the top 4 seeds and 14/15/16 seeds (yes, we're already up to 13 seeds at the bottom). Just do it in the discussion here. 2) Rank the next 12, but not your team (Illinois, Notre Dame, North Carolina) 3) Rank the remaining 26 teams that aren't ranked yet (7 auto bids, 19 at larges), but not your team (Oklahoma, UK). Top 8 will go into the last rank 12, bottom 8-10 (depending on where the clean break is in the numbers) will get slotted into 12/13 seeds, middle teams will get their own rank 8/10. 4) Discuss whether any teams off the board have done enough to get on the board.

Round 3 results... Current S-Curve (30): 1. Indiana 2. Duke 3. Louisville 4. Gonzaga (WCC) 5. Kansas 6. Michigan State 7. Michigan 8. Georgetown 9. Miami 10. Ohio State 11. New Mexico 12. Florida 13. Marquette 14. Kansas State 15. Syracuse 16. Wisconsin ... 55. Davidson (SoCon) 56. Harvard (Ivy) 57. South Dakota State (Summit) 58. Iona (MAAC) 59. Florida Gulf Coast (A-Sun) 60. Big West (Pacific) 61. Big Sky (Weber State) 62. America East (Vermont) 63. James Madison (CAA) 64. Western Kentucky (Sun Belt) 65. MEAC (NC Central) 66. LIU Brooklyn (NEC) 67. SWAC (Southern) 68. Liberty (Big South) Next 12 vote: Arizona Butler Colorado State Illinois Notre Dame North Carolina Oklahoma State Pittsburgh St. Louis UCLA UNLV VCU Other auto bids/potential one-bid leagues (7): Valparaiso (Horizon) MAC (Akron) Creighton (MVC) Belmont (OVC) Bucknell (Patriot) Southland (SF Austin) WAC (Denver) Remaining At-Large field (19): Boise State California Cincinnati Colorado Iowa State Kentucky La Salle Memphis Minnesota Missouri North Carolina State Oklahoma Oregon San Diego State St. Mary's Temple Tennessee Villanova Wichita State Off the board for now, but still in the conversation (4): Baylor Iowa Middle Tennessee Virginia Out: Air Force Akron Alabama Arizona State Arkansas Denver Maryland Mississippi Stanford

My 3rd round of picks:

I also think the crappy bubble might make the committee more likely to invite a good team from a weaker conference that screwed up its conference tournament (Middle Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, Denver, Memphis).

They didn't lose today, which is enough to separate them from this pack.

@JohnGasaway I've trademarked "Random Results Generator." RT @kpelton Just assume every Pac-12 Tournament game is going to be tied with 5 minutes left.

Keep an eye out for potential bid thievery in the Pac-12, where Utah is in the semis and the only two teams we've currently got in the field are on the same half of the bracket.

Make that top 4 in the MEAC. Yeah, that winner's going into the play-in game.