bukie

Memphis leads Southern Miss by 1 with 39 seconds to play, Memphis ball.

Colorado defeats Kansas State 87-75 and makes its case for best team in the Pac-10.

BYU hangs on vs. TCU 64-58. Colorado lead up to 6 with 3 minutes to play.

Memphis off to a fast start against Southern Miss. Colorado leading Kansas State by 2 midway through the second half.

Hypothetical of all hypotheticals: if Northwestern goes and beats Ohio State tomorrow, do they start to get serious at large consideration?

UAB FT shooter splits a pair down 3, but they get the offensive rebound on the miss and hit two more FTs to take the game to OT against East Carolina.

In-depth stats on the next set of S-Curve selections: Team RPI Pom Sag Pred W L 1-25 26-50 51-100 101-200 200+ R/N SOS NCS EM Arizona 15 28 21 19 25 6 1-3 4-2 7-0 10-1 3-0 8-6 44 129 .06 Connecticut 24 21 16 20 23 9 4-8 4-1 6-0 2-0 7-0 10-5 14 173 .01 Florida 10 19 18 23 24 6 2-2 5-0 6-1 6-3 5-0 10-3 42 105 .12 Georgetown 12 32 17 25 21 10 4-8 4-2 5-0 6-0 2-0 11-6 2 27 .00 Kentucky 11 10 15 8 22 8 4-3 1-2 4-2 8-1 3-0 7-8 31 46 .12 Louisville 21 14 14 14 23 8 7-4 1-2 5-2 2-0 8-0 5-5 36 293 .06 North Carolina 6 11 12 13 24 6 2-3 6-1 9-2 4-0 3-0 9-6 11 35 .11 San Diego State 3 9 6 11 27 2 2-2 3-0 6-0 13-0 3-0 15-1 43 61 .16 St. John's 23 34 23 33 21 10 7-4 2-2 4-2 4-1 4-1 8-7 7 97 .02 Syracuse 17 12 9 12 25 6 4-3 5-2 7-1 5-0 4-0 9-3 23 213 .09 West Virginia 19 22 19 18 20 11 5-6 2-2 6-3 5-0 2-0 8-9 3 21 .05 Wisconsin 13 7 11 9 23 7 4-5 4-2 8-0 2-0 5-0 7-7 13 202 .10

Well, it certainly doesn't hurt them.

I went ahead and gave you the Jags since I'm pretty sure we don't have one on the board. You can have the Chargers if we start tripling up, but I really don't want to do that. I'm pretty sure he just called you the only jag on the board.

What happened there? The box score doesn't jive with this. Virginia led by 10 with the ball with 40 seconds to play and let Miami tie it and send the game to overtime.

Double the turnovers, half the free throws, and gave up 13 offensive boards.

Kemba Walker hit a buzzer beater to beat Pitt. Kansas in a battle with Oklahoma State in the second half. And I'm not sure I've ever seen a collapse as bad as Virginia against Miami.

OK, I tossed in placeholder teams for all the conferences that hadn't completed tournaments yet, so we can rank the bottom 12 auto-bids for placement in the bottom of the S-Curve. The placeholder team is the odds-on favorite, not necessarily the best team (i.e. UTEP is the favorite in the CUSA tourney because it's on their home floor).

And someone is going to have to explain to me what makes Memphis an at large candidate beyond that they're Memphis. Alabama, I can buy the argument that they have the second best record in the 7th best conference (in the worst division I've ever seen), and they have played better the second half of the season.

I may ask for a fifth list of ranking the bottom 12 auto-bids, but I'll have to do some digging for placeholder teams for one-bid conferences that haven't completed yet.

Updated lists: S-Curve (8): Remaining at-large pool (28): Auto bids (13 of 31): Consideration board (34 teams for 1-9 spots): For today: 1) Rank the following 12 teams in order for the next 8 spots on the S-Curve: 2) Rank the next 12 teams from auto bids/at-large for placement on the S-Curve. 3) Rank the top 12 teams in consideration for potential at-large pool placement. One will be placed for sure, the next 7-9 will be placed in potential spots barring bid theft (If Utah State is one of them, they are another potential auto bid from a conference). 4) Rank the bottom 16 teams in consideration for removal (there are more to remove than to place). 5) Rank the bottom 12 auto-bids (placeholder teams in parentheses for conferences not yet done with tournaments) for placement at the bottom of the S-Curve.

What's scary is that even with the teams in the at-large pool, there are still up to 9 spots available for the remaining consideration board.

Today's results: Top 8 on the S-Curve: 1. Ohio State 2. Kansas 3. Pittsburgh 4. Duke 5. Notre Dame 6. Purdue 7. Texas 8. BYU 8 teams removed from consideration (alpha order): Arkansas Dayton George Washington Marshall Miami Southern Miss Tulsa UCF 8 teams into at-large pool (alpha order): Clemson Florida State Illinois Marquette Tennessee UNLV Washington Xavier Next 6 into the S-Curve selection (alpha order): Arizona Connecticut Kentucky Louisville St. John's West Virginia

I'll get this information interpreted as soon as I can.

Well, it's official. Bulls clinch the Central division. And nobody wants the 8 spot in the East. Milwaukee has won 4 of their last 10 and gained on a spot.

Long Island wins the Northeast.

As for today's lists from me: 12 For removal: 12 for at-large pool: Top 14 overall: Top 8 remaining:

UCF is a weird case, where they were outstanding at the beginning and end of the year, and had a completely unexplainable collapse in the middle. They went 6-10 in Conference USA. The "outstanding at the end of the year" was a 5-2 finish that included two 1-point wins at home, two 3-point wins (one at home) and a 6 point win. I think their start was mainly a function of winning close games against decent teams in the state of Florida and then beating a bunch of patsies. I don't know if they're an at-large consideration for the NIT. Oh, I'm not saying they're even in the tournament ballpark, but if Memphis is a consideration, then half of CUSA had to be.

UCF is a weird case, where they were outstanding at the beginning and end of the year, and had a completely unexplainable collapse in the middle. GW and Tulsa I agree, as well as Arkansas and Marshall. EDIT: By Marshall I mean Memphis, who has an awful profile and is only getting attention because they're Memphis.

In depth data on the S-Curve selection teams: Team RPI Pom Sag Pred W L 1-25 26-50 51-100 101-200 200+ R/N SOS NCS EM BYU 4 8 5 7 27 3 5-0 1-3 4-0 13-0 4-0 16-2 59 99 .18 Duke 5 3 4 3 27 4 2-1 6-3 12-0 3-0 4-0 10-4 27 70 .16 Florida 10 19 19 22 24 6 2-2 4-0 6-1 6-3 5-0 10-3 42 104 .12 Georgetown 11 26 16 19 21 9 4-7 4-2 5-0 6-0 2-0 11-5 2 27 .00 Kansas 1 2 2 2 29 2 3-2 7-0 8-0 7-0 4-0 13-1 40 175 .17 North Carolina 6 11 12 13 24 6 2-3 6-1 9-2 4-0 3-0 9-6 11 36 .11 Notre Dame 9 15 11 15 25 5 6-3 5-2 5-0 2-0 7-0 8-5 19 250 .07 Ohio State 2 1 1 1 29 2 5-2 7-0 9-0 5-0 4-0 9-2 20 241 .16 Pittsburgh 7 6 3 5 27 4 6-2 5-1 4-1 7-0 5-0 10-2 32 239 .15 Purdue 8 4 7 6 25 6 4-3 7-0 6-3 4-0 4-0 9-6 10 165 .13 San Diego State 3 9 6 11 27 2 2-2 3-0 6-0 13-0 3-0 15-1 43 62 .16 Syracuse 18 12 9 12 25 6 4-2 5-3 6-1 6-0 4-0 9-3 22 210 .09 Texas 14 5 8 4 25 6 4-3 3-2 5-1 7-0 6-0 9-4 36 91 .20 Wisconsin 13 7 10 9 23 7 3-5 5-2 8-0 2-0 5-0 7-7 13 203 .10 Key: RPI = RPI rating Pom = Pomeroy rating Sag = Sagarin rating Pred = Sagarin Predictor W/L = duh? 1-25, etc = record vs. Pomeroy ranked teams (since record vs. RPI teams isn't easy to calculate) R/N = Road/Neutral record SOS = Overall strength of schedule NCS = Non-conference SOS EM = Efficiency margin - calculated by John Gasaway, a measure of how much better a team has been than their opponents in games.