Andy

I just tossed this together based on our S-curve, making some adjustments for the BYU rules, conference restrictions and travel allowance. I'm going to go ahead and note that I would switch BYU and SDSU's seedings and that there's about no way the committee doesn't get carried away with Kembamania and move UConn up to a 3 seed if at all possible, but I'll defer to the group on both if there's disagreement there. East Regional Cleveland, OH 1 Ohio State vs 16 Alabama State/Hampton 8 vs 9 Tampa, FL 4 Louisville vs 13 Princeton 5 vs 12 Washington, DC 6 vs 11 3 Syracuse vs 14 Wofford Tulsa, OK 7 vs 10 2 Texas vs 15 St. Peter's Southwest Regional Tulsa, OK 1 Kansas vs 16 UNC-Asheville 8 vs 9 Denver, CO 4 Connecticut vs 13 Indiana State 5 vs 12 Tucson, AZ 6 vs 11 3 San Diego State vs 14 UC-Santa Barbara Chicago, IL 7 vs 10 2 Notre Dame vs 15 Long Island Southeast Regional Cleveland, OH 1 Pittsburgh vs 16 UT-San Antonio/Arkansas-Little Rock 8 vs 9 Tampa, FL 4 Florida vs 13 Oakland 5 vs 12 Charlotte, NC 6 vs 11 3 North Carolina vs 14 Morehead State Chicago, IL 7 vs 10 2 Purdue vs 15 Northern Colorado West Regional Charlotte, NC 1 Duke vs 16 Boston University 8 vs 9 Tucson, AZ 4 Kentucky vs 13 Memphis 5 vs 12 Washington, DC 6 vs 11 3 Wisconsin vs 14 Akron Denver, CO 7 vs 10 2 BYU vs 15 Bucknell I feel fairly certain that the play-in format has a 16-seed play-in and an at-large play-in on each night, necessitating a move for one of the 16 games, since both OSU and Kansas have been podded into Friday locations.

I really want him to be right about ND being ahead of Pitt and they probably deserve to be (even though they finished a game out, their Big East schedule was much more difficult than Pitt's, they beat them, and they had the extra pantsing of Cincy in the BET on the resume), but when it's a relative no-name school against two brand-name schools like Pitt and Duke, the predictable usually happens. I have no right to complain though, because the Irish had their chance to lock up a 1 seed Friday night and gagged it.

If we start from the bottom up and the top down with the S-Curve, here are the 1-16 matchups: East Regional Cleveland OH 1 Ohio State vs 16 Alcorn State*/Hampton Southwest Regional Tulsa, OK 1 Kansas vs 16 McNeese St*/Arkansas-Little Rock Southeast Regional Washington, DC 1 Pittsburgh vs 16 UNC-Asheville West Regional Charlotte, NC 1 Duke vs 16 Boston University I switched around BU and UNC-Asheville so as not to nullify Duke's pod advantage with UNC-Asheville.

Are we sure Purdue should remain a 2 seed? Lunardi has them down to a 4 and I think most of the other bracketologists have joined him.

My list of the 22 at-larges:

If Notre Dame can't make the Big East final with the draw they had and the team they had, they're just never going to make it. 3 of the last 5 years we've made it to the semis and lost in gut-wrenching fashion. Ben Hansbrough was hideous tonight, but he'd been red-hot for weeks so I guess he was due. The good news is that ND can still be a 1 seed, but the committee would have to be unusually nice to us and unusually overlooking of Duke, two things that don't often happen. And as I've never hesitated to point out, being the top 2, which is probably the fate awaiting us unless Maryland beats Duke tomorrow, is beyond my wildest dreams for this program anyway, so I have nothing to complain about.

ND just brutally efficient offensively in the Big East tournament. If they could just play this way 7 more games after this I don't know who would stop them.

Not assuming anything at all, but I'd love to get a shot at UConn playing on their 5th straight day if ND can get past Louisville.

I just moved Georgia down a bit in my at-large rankings to account for that game. Michigan's been bumped down too for their showing thus far - I'll change that back if they come back and win, though.

Does UNC drop on our S-curve if they lose to Miami here?

Here are my lists for now. 1)Rank the next set of S-Curve teams from 1-16: 2) Rank the remaining 15 at-larges. In the case of bid theft by non-at-large candidates, the lowest in this list will get bumped off the board. 3) Rank the bottom 12 auto-bids from the remaining unplaced bids, the aggregate bottom 8 of which will go into the bottom of the S-Curve.

Notre Dame has roughly a 2:1 advantage among bracketology sites in terms of who picked them for a 1 seed over Duke. Pitt's loss muddles that a bit though, as both teams could potentially now pass the Panthers in the minds of the projectionists.

In news that interests no one but me, Ball State is in OT with Ohio, potentially about to win and move on to face Kent State in the semis tomorrow. ETA: And they do win. Kent clocked us in Muncie in the regular season, so I'm sure that'll be the end of it, but nice to get a win.

I changed the order, which now runs from worst teams to best.

I look at that and honestly have no idea which is the low end and which is the high end. The numbers are just placeholders. There is no order whatsoever there.

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.

2nd biggest winning margin in the history of the Big East tournament. I'd rather play Marquette for their 4th game in 4 days than Louisville tomorrow night but the way ND is playing I'll take my chances with anybody.

To me, they'd have to get to the final before the conversation even starts.

Pitt is probably still a #1 seed - I'd certainly keep them as one - but the committee might do something different if ND and Duke were both to win their conference tourneys.

Please fire Tim Higgins. He is a travesty.

1) Top 12 teams under consideration to fill in at-large field 2) Bottom 12 teams under consideration to thin the consideration board. 3) Rank the following 14 teams in order. If you rep one of the teams, leave them out of your ranking, and it will be factored into the results (top 8 will go to S-Curve): 4) After those 14, rank the next 8 teams from among the at-large pool and the automatic bids (see first post).

Brey wins Coach of the Year and Hansbrough wins Player of the Year. 3rd time in 5 years that Brey gets Coach of the Year, which basically means he had the most underrated team in the preseason 3 times.

Marquette's win probably puts them in, but beating WV tomorrow would make them a lock IMO.

How does Kemba not win that award? I know Ben has been good, but Kemba is it for UConn. His scoring efficiency has been pretty atrocious in the Big East season, and if the end of our game with them was an indication, it's because he absolutely refuses to pass the ball half the time. In short, he's it for UConn because he makes sure that he's it for UConn. Also, they finished in 9th place.

It's ironic that the year I couldn't care less about individual awards for Notre Dame - I'm enjoying the team success too much - they have a good shot at cleaning up. Ben Hansbrough was the only unanimous first team all-Big East selection, which seems to be a dead giveaway that he's going to win Player of the Year. Mike Brey is probably going to win Coach of the Year for the 3rd time. I'd trade both those things if I could be guaranteed two wins in the conference tourney, no questions asked.