bukie

Also, Virginia Tech lost to Miami.

Illinois held on for dear life. *exhales*

Holy crap, they won.

Yeah, that seems like a given at this point unless Baylor passes them. Using the current S-Curve, giving the highest seed priority, and placing them as close as possible to home (using Google maps) I come up with: Kansas - Oklahoma City Syracuse - Buffalo Kentucky - Milwaukee Duke - Jacksonville West Virginia - Buffalo Ohio State - Milwaukee Kansas State - Oklahoma City Purdue - New Orleans Villanova - Providence Wisconsin - New Orleans New Mexico - San Jose Baylor - Jacksonville Michigan State - Providence Pittsburgh - Spokane Butler - Spokane Tennessee - San Jose Flipping a few locations at the bottom might decrease total travel distance though. I'd agree with that pod list. As for putting the 2-4 seeds into regions... 2 seeds: #5 West Virginia is closest to Syracuse, so they should go East. #6 Ohio State to the Midwest bracket #7 Kansas State to South #8 Purdue to West Bracket balance: Midwest: 7, South: 9, East: 8, West: 12 3 seeds: #9 Villanova to West to balance out that weaker bracket a bit #10 Wisconsin can't go Midwest (Ohio State), so East is next closest #11 New Mexico is our first western team, and would be best served going west, but the West bracket is already too weak, so South is slightly closer than Midwest, but... #12 Baylor can't go to the Midwest bracket (top 3 teams in conference must be in separate regions) OR South bracket, SO...Baylor East, NM Midwest, Wisconsin South Bracket balance: Midwest 18, South: 19, East: 20, West: 21 4 seeds: #13 Michigan State can technically go anywhere without violating rules (top 3 Big Ten teams already in the bracket, on opposite side), so we'll toss them West to balance out the bracket. #14 Pittsburgh can go anywhere but South (Syracuse is there), so we'll toss them East as they're the closest there. #15 Butler is closest to the Midwest region, so we'll toss them there. #16 Tennessee is left for the South. Bracket balance: Midwest 33, South 35, East 34, West 34 -- Not bad overall for balance while still following the rules and keeping as many teams close to home as possible. Anyone agree/disagree?

Let's go with what we know: - Kansas has got to be a lock for the top overall seed at this point, no matter what else happens. - Syracuse we'll leave at #2 overall unless Duke wins the ACC tourney (which is very possible). - Kentucky will be 4th overall, possibly passing Duke if they win. - WVU may still be in the mix if they win the Big East tourney. As for regions: Kansas goes to the Midwest region in St. Louis, MO. #2 will go to Syracuse, NY unless it's Syracuse. #4 will be Salt Lake City, UT. Syracuse will go to the South region in Houston, TX. Duke slotted #3 currently will be sent to the East region in Syracuse, NY. Kentucky at #4 will be sent to the West region in Salt Lake City, UT. As for pods: Thursday-Saturday pods: New Orleans, LA Providence, RI San Jose, CA Oklahoma City, OK Friday-Sunday pods: Buffalo, NY Jacksonville, FL Milwaukee, WI Spokane, WA

Here are all the auto bids I want you all to rank: Team W L top25 26-50 51-100 101-200 200+ SOS NCSOS R+N --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cornell (Ivy) 27 4 0-2 0-0 2-1 10-0 13-1 218 78 14-3 E Tenn St (ASun) 20 14 0-0 0-2 0-3 8-5 11-4 206 30 11-9 Montana (BSky) 22 9 0-0 0-1 0-0 11-4 9-4 310 131 8-7 Murray State (OVC) 30 4 0-1 0-0 2-1 4-2 22-0 297 307 15-4 North Texas (SB) 24 8 0-1 0-1 0-0 5-2 16-4 155 128 12-6 Northern Iowa (MVC) 28 4 0-0 1-0 8-1 13-2 5-1 114 162 14-4 Oakland (SUM) 26 8 0-4 0-1 0-0 6-3 18-0 191 13 13-7 Old Dominion (CAA) 26 8 1-1 0-2 4-3 8-1 13-0 112 33 11-8 Robert Morris (NEC) 23 11 0-1 0-1 0-3 6-5 17-2 310 131 11-8 Siena (MAAC) 27 6 0-1 0-3 1-1 18-1 7-0 167 104 10-6 St. Mary's (WCC) 26 5 0-0 3-3 3-2 7-0 12-0 155 128 12-3 Winthrop (BSth) 19 13 0-1 0-1 0-3 2-4 15-5 306 88 7-11 Wofford (SC) 26 8 0-1 0-1 2-2 8-4 15-0 207 86 15-7 AE (Boston U) 19 12 0-1 0-2 1-1 3-7 15-1 245 80 10-8 BW (Pacific) 20 10 0-1 1-2 1-0 3-4 15-3 210 131 9-6 MAC (Ohio) 19 14 0-0 0-1 2-4 7-6 8-3 164 159 6-10 MEAC (Morgan St) 25 9 0-1 0-2 0-1 3-3 22-2 304 171 14-8 Patriot (Lehigh) 21 10 0-0 0-2 0-0 1-3 20-5 328 346 7-8 SL (Sam Houston St) 24 7 0-1 0-0 1-1 5-2 14-3 235 92 11-6 SWAC (Arkansas PB) 15 15 0-2 0-4 0-2 0-3 15-4 301 1 7-14 And yes, Arkansas-Pine Bluff is actually 1-14 against the top 300. And that's the best team left in that tournament.

I think the 1 seed line should be Kansas, Duke, Syracuse, Kentucky right now, but Duke is currently below Kentucky on the seed line as is. I think Syracuse is still safe where it is, in general.

Today's agenda: 1 - Bracket construction - Finish placing the top 4 seeds into our bracket, and assign pods for them (in discussion on board today). 2 - Bubble completion - Rank the 16 remaining teams in the bubble in order. SSR and I will put Illinois where we think they should go, but the points associated with them will not count for or against them. 3 - Auto bid ranking - There are 13 unplaced auto bids, and an additional 7 (America East, Big West, MAC, MEAC, Patriot, Southland, SWAC) where none of the teams are even in discussion for a bid. I'll post the data for the highest remaining rated team in each of those tournaments, and I want you to send me a list of all those auto bids (20) ranked in order. 4 - S-Curve continues - Rank me the next 16 teams in order from the at-large and auto bid list (yes, I realize this means you may get, like, St. Mary's or Northern Iowa in two lists, but that's fine). Old Style can include A&M where he thinks they should go and Andy can put ND where he thinks they should go, but as with the bubble list, the points associated with them will not count for nor against them (also TT with Mizzou). So, send me 3 lists by 8am CST tomorrow, and build the top 4 seeds into the bracket with discussion in the thread.

And here are the results: 12 to the S-Curve: 5. West Virginia (15.5) 6. Ohio State (13.83) 7. Kansas State (13.67) 8. Purdue (13.67) 9. Villanova (11.5) 10. Wisconsin (10.67) 11. New Mexico (10.5) 12. Baylor (8.167) 13. Michigan State (6.667) 14. Pittsburgh (5.833) 15. Butler (5.167) 16. Tennessee (4.667) Four removed from consideration: Memphis UAB South Florida Cincinnati

Here's my lists: Top 16 available: Bottom 8 bubbles:

I'll wait another 15 minutes, and then I'll just post the results I have (I have 5 entries total). If you didn't get yours in yet, hurry up.

No, hurry up! :)

20 minutes left to send in your two lists. I've received 4 so far.

The other thing WVU's win did is officially open up an at-large spot, since only teams already in the field are left in the Big East tourney. The same is true of the Big 12 tourney, which has actually gone true to form with Kansas, K-State, Baylor and Texas A&M advancing to the semis.

And WVU hits a 3 at the buzzer to win it. Lots of bubble teams lost today.

Arizona State just lost to Stanford. EDIT: Also, Cincinnati and WVU tied at 51 with 3 seconds to play. If Cincy wins, all 4 top seeds in the Big East tourney are done.

It's a good day to be a bubble team. As long as you're not playing today... About 10 hours left to get me the two lists.

Oklahoma State making some form of a statement against Kansas State tonight.

New Mexico avoids a terrible loss and beats Air Force 75-69.

Also, Marquette beat Villanova, who also apparently decided they'd rather not play 3 games this weekend.

Probably drops them to a 5-6 seed? Maybe a 4 if the rest of the tournaments play out without many upsets? Definitely way lower than that Wake could be looking at the 8-9 game at this point. If not worse.

UAB trails Southern Miss by 15 at the half. Not a good day for bubble teams, unless said bubble team isn't playing today.

Wake lost by 21 to the worst team in the ACC. Though still better than the worst team in any other conference, still not good.

Don't forget UCLA over Arizona.

Another not good moment for a bubble team: Memphis trailing Houston in the CUSA quarters with 5 mins to play. There may not be anyone at-large worthy out of that conference either.