February 6, 2014

Well, the Gophers have officially backed their way out of the tournament.  Just a couple weeks ago local sports pundits were lamenting that Pitino was having too much success here and would be one-and-done with Minnesota.  It looks like regression to the mean has caught up with the Gophers, and although they've got the talent to compete with the country's top teams, they don't have the discipline and consistency to regularly beat anyone.

In other news, Wichita State victorious against their last tough opponent, unless they face the Sycamores again in the MVC tournament.  Their road to an undefeated regular season looks pretty smooth from here on out, virtually guaranteeing them a #1 seed.  By comparison, just two of Syracuse's nine remaining opponents are outside the RPI top-100, and they have road games remaining at Pitt, Duke, Virginia, and Florida State - all top-50 teams.

So, an interesting question - if Wichita State finishes undefeated, and both Syracuse and Arizona finish with two losses, do the Shockers get the #1 overall?  Intuition (not to mention strength of schedule) says no, but among the teams with fewer than 3 losses, only Villanova and Arizona have top-30 SOS numbers.  It may be a bit of an unlikely scenario, but it could become an interesting discussion.

1 seeds: Arizona, Syracuse, Wichita State, Villanova

2 seeds: Florida, Kansas, San Diego State, Michigan State

3 seeds: Cincinnati, Creighton, Saint Louis, Iowa State

4 seeds: Massachusetts, Gonzaga, Duke, Wisconsin

5 seeds: Pittsburgh, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan

6 seeds: New Mexico, Ohio State, VCU, Virginia

7 seeds: Southern Miss, Louisville, UCLA, George Washington 

8 seeds: Connecticut, Oklahoma, Colorado, Memphis

9 seeds: Oklahoma State, Iowa, SMU, Toledo

10 seeds: Arizona State, Missouri, Oregon, North Carolina

11 seeds: Stanford, Kansas State, Providence, Xavier

12 seeds: LSU, Indiana State, Saint Joseph's, North Dakota State, Richmond, Clemson

13 seeds: New Mexico State, Belmont, Harvard, Stephen F Austin

14 seeds: Green Bay, Delaware, Mercer, Canisius

15 seeds: Georgia State, North Carolina Central, UC Santa Barbara, Boston University

16 seeds: Stony Brook, Northern Colorado, Bryant, Davidson, Alabama State, Radford

First Four Out: Mississippi, Minnesota, California, Florida State
Next Four Out: Saint Mary's, Tennessee, BYU, Dayton