bukie

ok, i'm sold. i take back the bad things i said about him. if he's a taller bruce bowen that can guard premier SG's and SF's, get him and get rid of the white mamba or bogans. The Bulls don't have to get rid of anyone to add Brewer, since they dumped JJ last week.

Brewer being recruited by Boston, San Antonio, Dallas, Miami, New Orleans and Chicago. Guess which one has the most cap room to spend?

Henry Abbott says a lot of nice things about Corey Brewer.

Boston "wins" the Troy Murphy sweepstakes.

Hollinger projections as of this morning have the Heat and Celtics finishing 59-23, and the Bulls finishing 58-24. Bulls odds of getting the 1 seed are up over 20% for the first time this year.

John Gasaway posted efficiency numbers on every meaningful conference (Big 6 + A10/CUSA/CAA/MWC/WCC/Horizon/MVC/WAC, so every feasible at-large candidate) coming into championship week. Not necessarily important for tournament qualification or even seeding, but a good measure of how good a team really should be, so you can see who is the most overrated (St. Johns) or underrated (Kentucky, Washington) going into the tourney.

Doesn't Ronnie make Corey sort of obsolete? I think it'd give the Bulls the ability to rest Deng more, if nothing else.

Wait...it's supposed to say 2012?

I'm sure if someone would've told the Hawks that Hendry would get injured, they'd have held on to Boynton for tonight.

ESPN rumor that Corey Brewer will be bought out by the Knicks. Another wing that can't shoot for anything, but a better defender than Butler, and offers more upside.

Could've sworn you were an Iowa fan.

I'd rather give Belmont and Utah State at-larges.

Can I hate on the SEC a bit here? This projects to be the first year since they've kept track online that a "Big Six" conference isn't going to be a top 6 conference. Partially because the MWC is better than it was last year, and partially because the SEC is actually worse than the Pac-10 was last year. That said, Kentucky is going to be woefully underseeded come tourney time. Every other team, not so much. EDIT: I forgot how bad the Pac-10 was in 2004. Worse than the A-10, CUSA and MWC that year.

Some team is going to be extremely fortunate to get St. John's in their bracket and not play them in NY.

Team A is Michigan, yes.

Mike Bibby agreed to a buyout today while agreeing to forgo all the rest of his salary in order to join a contender in need of a PG. Miami/LA, anyone?

Today's food for thought, two potential at-large candidates...well, team B is a major at-large candidate and assumed in, while team A is barely getting any consideration: Record RPI SOS Streak Last 10 Home Road Top25 25-50 51-100 100+ 18-12 (8-9) 66 21 W1 7-3 13-5 5-5 0-7 4-1 7-4 6-0 19-9 (11-3) 80 139 L1 8-2 15-0 4-6 1-1 0-1 3-6 15-1

This year, the RPI is even further off the better statistical ratings than usual, so it'll be interesting to see who gets chosen for what. As of this morning, BYU is the #1 team in RPI.

Also, my team is Illinois for this exercise, as per usual.

It's that time of year again. Time for the 8th (yikes, 8?) annual mock tournament selection committee, during which we'll do a mock version of the tournament selection process. Anyone is free to participate if they are able, but please make sure you'll be able to participate regularly between Wednesday and Sunday of next week (during the actual selection process), or at the very least be able to submit 1-3 lists of teams per day during that period. The actual committee consists of 10 members, so if we can get close to that number, the process will more closely resemble reality (rather than the combined feelings of a couple folks). To participate, by midnight (CST) Tuesday, March 8, send (PM) me 4 things: 1) Your favorite team (the team you'll "represent"). During the selection process, you will not be allowed to include this team in any lists, to maintain as much of a sense of fairness as possible. This mirrors the real committee, as a committee member may not be involved in any discussion for a team in his conference (we'd do that here, but 95% of the populace is Big Ten, so nobody would ever be able to discuss them) 2) A list of cold, hard locks for the tournament, no further discussion needed, no matter what they do in the remainder of their games. This can be any number of teams up to a max of 37 (there are 37 at-large bids this year, no more than that can be locks, right?) 3) A list of teams that deserve consideration for the tournament, besides the locks. 4) A list of your top 10 teams, in order (not including the team you represent, obv) Some good resources: Pomeroy ratings Sagarin ratings RPI Basketball State (costs money after a few page views, but tons of info) Basketball Prospectus Updated S-Curve (1-68): Pod placement: Bottom of the at-large pool (alpha): Boston College, Colorado, Richmond Still in talks: Penn State, New Mexico, USC

I'd think so. That BYU win will go a long way.

Bulls' next 7 games involving the teams in the southeast. One road game each against the Southeast division, intermingled with home games against New Orleans and Atlanta. This is really the last extended tough stretch, and it'd be nice to go at worst 4-3, and preferably 5-2 or better. If the Bulls are going to have any hope at all of catching Miami and Boston, though, they can't go 0-3 at the end of this week in Atlanta, Orlando and Miami.

Seeing as we still likely will finish with the 3 seed, I'm fine with the Knicks figuring a way out of the 6 seed, and I'm more than fine with the Heat feeling less confident against 'good' teams. The more likely way the Knicks figure a way out of the 6 seed is to drop to the 7 seed.

On the one hand, nice to see the Heat lose again. On the other hand, just what the Knicks need, more press.

A shooting guard who can't shoot and isn't good enough to play for the Clippers.