Bubble teams – in or out?

Just about every sports show on television or radio has a segment where the host reads a bunch of teams that are questionable for the NCAA Tournament and people guess whether they’re in or out.

The ones I’ve heard the most from the big conferences are:

Syracuse – out

Villanova – out

Ohio State – out (but they’re win over Purdue last night might help the Buckeyes)

Kentucky – in (I’ve seen both in and out but I’m going with in)

Florida – out (again, I’ve seen both but I’m thinking the two-time defending champs are out)

Miami – in (very high RPI in the mid-20s)

Wake Forest – out

Maryland – in

Kansas State – in

Arizona – in

Virginia Tech – in (one of your last teams in and are hoping for mimimal upsets in the conference tournaments)

St. Joseph’s – out

Dayton – out

Arkansas – out

New Mexico – in

Of course, it’s only March 5. There will be quite a few changes between now and when the tournament tips off.

Joe Lunardi and Bracketology

How great a job does Joe Lunardi have?

The guy was working at St. Joseph’s and doing a great job of picking the teams that actually made the NCAA Tournament every year. ESPN somehow notices, one thing leads to another, and now he’s a celebrity.

That’s not to say that he doesn’t deserve it. His columns generate millions of hits for ESPN, which translates into a good amount of advertising revenue. He obviously has a passion for college basketball. He’s great at his job and he’s personable – unlike a lot of geeks that are locked in an office trying to figure this stuff out.

Lunardi, by the way, still works at St. Joseph’s, doing media relations for the university and working the radio broadcasts of the Hawks basketball games.

I guess there’s hope for all of us college basketball nuts yet.

ESPN’s Gameday great at Kansas

I’ve always been a huge fan of ESPN’s College Gameday during football season and loved when they added the show to Saturdays during basketball season.

I’m not sure about you but I don’t think that the basketball ones have been nearly as fun as the football ones. Now, football, of course, has some inherent advantages with large crowds being in the parking lot early for tailgating. That generally makes the enthusiasm surrounding the show much better football.

Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, though, was awesome. The crowd was great throughout the show and the ‘Deal or No Deal’ skit was a unique little twist. No doubt that K-State’s win over the Jayhawks in Manhattan earlier this year upped the hype and enthusiasm for this game – but it was great to see.

To date, I think this was the best basketball Gameday. I’m looking forward to next week, though, as I’m sure the show will be at Cameron for the Duke-Carolina game. Hopefully, the enthusiasm there will match what KU had to offer.

March Madness about ready to start

Okay, so the the tournaments really don’t get going until mid-March nowadays. That’s okay, tomorrow is March 1 and that’s close enough. There are a ton of great stories and great games still to go before we get to the Field of 65 (hate that, it should still be 64).

We’ll ramble and give opinion on all things college basketball for the rest of the season. I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say about the season as well.