Selection Show! Wooo!

No surprises in the #1 seeds. North Carolina is #1 overall, and the top seed in the East Region; Memphis is tops in the South; UCLA in the West; and Kansas in Midwest. Tennessee probably got knocked out of the spot now occupied by the Jayhawks when they lost to Arkansas yesterday.

Selections coming up!

UPDATE: #5 Notre Dame vs. #12 George Mason!

And a possible second-round rematch with #13 Winthrop!

UPDATE, 6:11 PM: How does Tennessee get stuck with North Carolina?? That's not fair. The Vols cannot have been the #8 overall seed. Lame.

UPDATE, 6:15 PM: South Alabama gets in! And as a #10 seed, matched up with Butler in Birmingham, Alabama. So it's another mid-major vs. mid-major matchup (ugh). I'm not too upset about Butler's #7 seed, though. They're overrated in the polls. But the matchup is annoying. Hopefully that's our only "David vs. David" matchup.

The other bubble team in so far is St. Joe's, as an #11 seed. One region down, three to go...

UPDATE, 6:25 PM: ARRRGGH!!!! More stupid mid-major vs. mid-major matchups!! #8 UNLV vs. #9 Kent State and #7 Gonzaga vs. #10 Davidson!

If Gonzaga can reach the second round, a possible Battle of the Jesuits looms against Georgetown... and if they can reach the Sweet Sixteen, they could face USC, the ultimate Brendan Loy dilemma. But I doubt that will happen; I will probably be picking Davidson. More likely, the Sweet Sixteen could pit USC vs. my dad's alma mater, #2 Georgetown. But only if the #6 Trojans can get past #11 Kansas State (Mayo vs. Beasley!) and then probably #3 Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Villanova gets in. Joe Lunardi is perfect on the bubble teams so far. The Wildcats were his "last team in."

It's now pretty much impossible for Arizona, Arizona State and Oregon to all make it, unless somebody from the "very likely in" list doesn't make it.

Two regions down, two to go.

UPDATE, 6:29 PM: A decent David vs. Goliath matchup, sort of, in #7 Miami vs. #10 St. Mary's.

Note also the Battle of the Brainiacs, #3 Stanford vs. #14 Cornell.

Oregon is a #9 seed. That suggests so much respect fpr the Pac-10 that you'd almost think Arizona and Arizona State will both get in. But that would require either Baylor or Texas A&M to not make it.

Glad to see Oral Roberts finally get a decent seed (#13).

UPDATE, 6:31 PM: With one region to go, here's where things stand on the bubble: four teams from the "true bubble" category have made it already, leaving only one spot left, unless one of the two remaining "very likely in" teams -- Baylor or A&M -- is left out.

Among the bubble teams still waiting to hear their names called: Arizona, Arizona State, Illinois State, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, VCU. Again, only one of those teams can make it, unless Baylor and/or A&M doesn't.

Lunardi is still perfect. He has Arizona as the only unannounced team getting in.

UPDATE, 6:35 PM: Joe Lunardi PERFECT for (I believe) the first time ever!

Very interesting that Oregon gets a #9 and Arizona gets a #10, but ASU gets left out. Clearly the committee penalized them for the terrible non-conference strength of schedule.

"Some of these non-power conference teams need to step up and win some games," says Seth Davis. Well, it's a bit hard for them to prove anything when they're all matched up against each other... sigh...

UPDATE, 6:51 PM: Is Billy Packer a d**k or what? He keeps talking about how the Big East gets 8 teams in, versus the ACC's 4, without mentioning that the Big East has 16 teams to the ACC's 12.

Comments

[NDLauren]

I like ND's matchup the 1st two days. The potential UNC matchup though that awaits them scares me quite a bit.

[NDLauren]

Mayo v. Beasley...you can't seriously tell me the committee didn't do everything in their powers to make that happen.

[NDLauren]

And Pitt jumps all the way to a 4? That's slightly crazy.

[yea]

harangody vs hannborough would be really fun to watch. hopefully north carolina can get by indiana.

[JD]

Drake in Tampa? YUCK. Couldn't send them to Omaha or Denver or even Little Rock, could you?

[MHiggo]

Butler vs. USA
UNLV vs. Kent State
Gonzaga vs. Davidson
Drake vs. Western Kentucky

Tough cookies to Illinois State, VCU, UAB and New Mexico.

Talk amongst yourselves, mid-majors. The NCAA and its friends will let you know when your presence is required.

[NDLauren]

Billy always seems to forget that fact, Brendan. It baffles me too. I forgive him though, as this year he seems to like ND :-)

[Newbs]

WHAT A JOKE. Nova makes it in, but then they will have to face North Carolina in the Final Four??? Completely unfair...

[MHiggo]

Your breakdown of the 34 at-large bids:

Power conferences 28
Mid-majors 6

Just do away with this farce and set up a I-AA for basketball already.

[Brendan]

LOL Newbs.

[JD]

Big East: Half of the teams get in.
ACC: One-third of the teams get in.

It's not exactly equal.

[Jim Hu]

Oy... Bobby Knight and the Va Tech coach are talking about going to 128 teams.

[Brendan]

I didn't say it was exactly equal, JD. But Packer's rhetoric suggests that Big East did twice as well as the ACC in terms of the number of teams in, which isn't true. My objection was to Packer's dishonest fuzzy math; I wasn't asserting equality between the conferences.

[M]

Brendan,

Loathe as I am to agree with the festering pustule that is Billy Packer, but he actually has a decent point. I think he was referring to the ACC, which has the best conference RPI, getting four teams while the four leagues below it got six or eight bids.

Leagues by RPI (NCAA berths/total teams)

1 Atlantic Coast (4/12)
2 Pac 10 (6/10)
3 Big 12 (6/12)
4 Southeastern (6/12)
5 Big East (8/16)
6 Big Ten (4/11)

[Brendan]

See above. I'm not saying he doesn't have a valid point, necessarily. (Although, beyond Virginia Tech, who exactly should have gotten in, and what other teams should have been excluded? The reason the ACC is ranked so high is because its middle and bottom is strong, but those still aren't tournament teams.) I'm just saying his rhetoric is misleading.

[MHiggo]

C'mon ESPN ... 128 teams is nonsense and you know it. It's high-larious for the channel featuring weeks of conference championship games to beat the drum of "These Are NOT the 65 Best Teams in the Country."

I'm sure he's a very sweet man, but I can't overcome the urge to punch Tom O'Connor in the mouth.

[MHiggo]

OUT: Villanova, Kentucky, Oregon

IN: Illinois State, VCU, UAB

WHY?: Chaos, dammit! :)

[Brendan]

It was amazing that Dick Vitale came across as the reasonable one in that conversation. Nobody else seemed to realize that expanding the field to 128 would simply lead to debates over #128 vs. #129.

[Jim Hu]

Where is the best place online to view the bracket?

I'm looking at the ones on the CBS and ESPN websites and it seems to me that they could put more information (e.g. W-L records, RPI) on the lines. It would also be nice to have links directly from the bracket to info about the teams.

[Jim Hu]

oops, they both have links... they just don't look like links.

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[David K.]

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