Championship Week Continues: The Storm Before the Storm

Another great day of college hoops on Friday. But a terrible day for bubble teams like Drexel, Old Dominion, Stanford, Appalachian St (I keep them in this category, because I would like them to get in, not because I think they have a shot at this point), and Florida State. With Nevada losing to Utah State (with Shiloh out), and Xavier losing to Rhode Island (is Lamar Odom back to use up the rest of his eligibility?), that means that the WAC and the Atlantic 10 will both get two bids, costing two bubble teams their spots. Look for Bruiser Flint, the Drexel coach, to start shooting if Houston beat Memphis today to get Conference USA a second bid.

Today we have a mix of some games where bids are on the line (Vermont v. Albany, New Mexico St v. Utah St, Long Beach v. Cal Poly), and some with the big boys colliding (Big East Final, ACC, Big 12, SEC, Big 10 Semis).

I am especially intrigued by this New Mexico State team (which may be smart to sign Matt Parsons, redshirt freshman quarterback from the football team and a solid 6'7", and my nephew), which has played well but under the radar all year long. Reggie Theus has a great chance to get this team to the big dance, especially with playing the title game today at home. And they have a better chance in my opinion of winning a game once there than the other auto qualifiers today (Vermont, Long Beach in my opinion).

For all the play the SEC East got this year with all the so called locks coming from that division (Kentucky, Vandy, Florida, Tennessee), three of the four semifinalists in that conference come from the lowly, NIT bound West division. Of the three teams left to challenge the alpha dog Gators, Arkansas is playing the best ball lately, and is probably in the best shape to make an at-large claim just be getting to the finals. The Hogs are coming off impressive back to back wins over Vandy including one on the Commodores funky home court.

In the ACC, NC State joins three of the top 4 seeds in looking for the championship, after adding Virginia's scalp to their win over Duke from Thursday night. With NC State's lack of depth, winning four games in four days will be a tall order, although they did handle their opponent today, Va Tech, by 25 earlier this year, and have a win over UNC to their credit as well. This is clearly a different team with Atsur running the point and they were crushed by the 12 games he missed earlier this season. That injury, more than Tony Douglas at Florida State, did the most damage to an ACC team's at large chances.

In the Big East, I pick Pitt to beat Georgetown. Per my post yesterday, Pitt is just a team that always plays well in the Big East tourney, that is flying under the National radar, and found a way to beat a very good Louisville team yesterday despite getting nothing, and I mean nothing, from Aaron Gray, their best player.

In the Big 10, look for Purdue, despite starting nobody over 6'7", to give Ohio State all they can handle today. This game will come down to the wire, and I think Purdue has a shot. In the other game, Wisconsin seems to have found a way to play effectively without Brian Butch, and I think they handle Illinois with relative ease. Personally, people are saying Illinois is in, but I think they should be out unless they win today.

I will be back tomorrow with what I think the 65 teams will be and what I think they should be if I had a vote.