Field of 68: Indiana Joins the Field, Rutgers Hanging On (For Now)

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SelectionSunday

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This week's Field of 68 again includes 10 Big Ten teams, but there's a new Indiana team making an appearance. The Indiana Hoosiers replace the Purdue Boilermakers after IU bagged a pair of significant wins, @ Minnesota on Wednesday and then Sunday at home vs. Ohio State. Meanwhile, the Boilers (14-14) have dropped 4 straight and for now are completely out of the at-large conversation.

Rutgers (17-10, 9-8 Big Ten) remains in the field, but the Scarlet Knights are getting perilously close to the "Last 4 In" group. The main thing holding the Scarlet Knights back is their record away from the RAC. They are 1-7 in true road games, 1-9 when you tack on a pair of neutral-site losses. RU would do itself a huge favor by winning 2 of its final 3 games (@ Penn State, Maryland, @ Purdue). If they don't, they'll likely need to do some work in Indianapolis at the Big Ten Tournament.

There are 5 new at-larges in the field this week: Arkansas, Indiana, NC State, Providence, and Richmond. They replace Alabama, Furman (AQ), Oklahoma, Purdue, and USC.

An * denotes the conference leader/projected #1 conference tournament seed in a multiple-bid conference.

FIELD OF 68 (through games played Feb. 23)
America East (1): Vermont (84)

American (3): Houston (24), Wichita State (43), *Cincinnati (54)

ACC (5): Duke (6), *Louisville (7), Florida State (12), Virginia (51), NC State (53)

ASUN (1): Liberty (50)

Atlantic 10 (3): *Dayton (4), Rhode Island (37), Richmond (49)

Big East (7): Creighton (9), Villanova (11), *Seton Hall (17), Butler (23), Marquette (26), Xavier (44), Providence (48)

Big Sky (1): Montana (131)

Big South (1): Radford (161)

Big Ten (10): *Maryland (10), Michigan State (13), Ohio State (19), Michigan (22), Penn State (25), Iowa (27), Wisconsin (29), Rutgers (34), Illinois (35), Indiana (52)

Big XII (4): *Kansas (1), Baylor (2), West Virginia (15), Texas Tech (16)

Big West (1): UC-Irvine (103)

Colonial (1): Hofstra (114)

Conference USA (1): North Texas (92)

Horizon (1): Wright State (129)

Ivy (1): Yale (60)

MAAC (1): Saint Peter's (202)

MAC (1): Akron (74)

MEAC (1): North Carolina A&T (274)

Missouri Valley (1): Northern Iowa (46)

Mountain West (2): *San Diego State (5), Utah State (38)

NEC (1): Saint Francis-Pa. (181)

OVC (1): Austin Peay (155)

Pac 12 (4): Arizona (8), Colorado (18), Oregon (20), *Arizona State (41)

Patriot (1): Colgate (116)

SEC (5): *Kentucky (21), Auburn (28), LSU (30), Florida (33), Arkansas (45)

SoCon (1): East Tennessee State (39)

Southland (1): Stephen F. Austin (87)

SWAC (1): Prairie View A&M (189)

Summit (1): South Dakota State (118)

Sun Belt (1): Little Rock (138)

WCC (3): *Gonzaga (3), BYU (14), Saint Mary's (32)

WAC (1): New Mexico State (123)
________________________________

Last 4 In: Wichita State (43), (last team in) Arkansas (45), Providence (48), Richmond (49)

Last 4 Automatic Qualifiers: Saint Francis, Pa. (181), Prairie View A&M (189), Saint Peter's (202), North Carolina A&T (274)

First 8 Out: (first team out) Stanford (31), Alabama (40), USC (47), Oklahoma (55), Georgetown (59), Memphis (61), NC-Greensboro (62), UCLA (76)

Non-Power 6 At-Larges (7): BYU (14), Houston (24), Saint Mary's (32), Rhode Island (37), Utah State (38), Wichita State (43), Richmond (49)
___________________________________
Movin' On In (10): Akron, Arkansas, Indiana, Liberty, North Carolina A&T, NC State, Providence, Radford, Richmond, Saint Francis, Pa.

Movin' On Out (10): Alabama, Bowling Green, Furman, NCCU, North Florida, Oklahoma, Purdue, Robert Morris, USC, Winthrop
 
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I'm not really going to argue, because I'm not sure who I would put in (maybe consider UCLA), but Arkansas?

They are 5-9 in SEC play. I know they got Joe back, but they need to win all 4 to get to .500 in meh league.

Like I said, not many contenders to snatch that bid so OK, I guess.
 

Arkansas definitely a good-sized reach on my part. Factoring in Joe’s injury, for sure.
 

Trick for UCLA is winning their home games this week over the Arizona schools, but they don't have a horrific resume. Couple of inexplicable Ls, but coming on strong.

If none of those teams make a move, I'd give an extra bid to a Southern or OVC team.
 

obobo55 said:
Trick for UCLA is winning their home games this week over the Arizona schools, but they don't have a horrific resume. Couple of inexplicable Ls, but coming on strong.

If none of those teams make a move, I'd give an extra bid to a Southern or OVC team.
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Multiple bids for SoCon is definitely possible with ETSU and/or UNCG, but there's no way OVC is getting 2 bids this year.
 


Yeah, it was a stretch. Just my underdog rooting going there.

I really don't like teams that have had 15-20 chances to prove they are capable of beating good teams and shown they can't when some small programs get 3 chances all year (mostly on the road).

Honestly, Minnesota deserves in compared to some in your field.
 

obobo55 said:
Honestly, Minnesota deserves in compared to some in your field.
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That argument could be made, but 13-13 is 13-13. You are what your record says you are. Teams with .500 records don't deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament.

Gophers need to be 3 games over .500 on Selection Sunday for me to consider putting them into the field. Ditto for teams like Purdue and Alabama, who also have pretty good NET rankings.
 





SelectionSunday said:
Define low major.
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Whatever definition one can conjure, Summit, OVC, Socon, all unquestionably belong to it. There's no debate to be had there.

The debate could be for conferences like the Horizon perhaps or the MAC maybe.
 

MplsGopher said:
Whatever definition one can conjure, Summit, OVC, Socon, all unquestionably belong to it. There's no debate to be had there.

The debate could be for conferences like the Horizon perhaps or the MAC maybe.
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I will always argue, teams get at-large bids, not conferences. Teams are all part of a conference, yes, but when determining the NCAA Tournament at-large bids every team essentially is an independent. But just for a comparison, here are the current rankings (per WarrenNolan.com) for each of the conferences you mentioned:

#12 MAC
#13 SoCon
#19 Summit
#22 Horizon
#28 OVC

Among teams from these 5 conferences, only East Tennessee State (SoCon) has a pretty decent argument for an at-large bid. Next in line would UNC-Greensboro, also from the SoCon.
 

I’m talking historical. I guess Horizon and MAC aren’t as good as I thought.
 

The MAC has pretty consistently been in the 11-14 range behind the A10, MWC, WCC. Their problem generally is that the league never lets anyone go 15-3 or so. Just a really competitive group.

The league that got killed was the Missouri Valley. When they had Creighton and WichitaSt, it regularly had a chance at 2 bids. Still OK, but a big drop.
 



I just have a really hard time allowing a lower conference to steal away an at-large.

Especially when they have one really dominate team that somehow, magically loses the conf tourny auto-bid. I think they cheated it, to try to get another team in. Too bad! That's why they have the NIT.
 







Had the Gophers stayed with their normal non-conference schedule of easier opponents this year, would we be better off at possibly 16-10 or 17-9 but having not played as tough of a schedule? The offense this year is running more efficiently than last year even with the awful shooting from the arc.
 

SelectionSunday said:
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Utah State is not a bubble team. No way. They're going to finish the regular season 24-7. Then get the #2 seed and pick up two more wins on the way to a rematch of last year's tourny final with SDSU.

Obviously winning would be a lock regardless, beyond the fact that they'd be an auto-bid, but more likely they end up 26-8. Easy in.
 



MplsGopher said:
Utah State is not a bubble team. No way. They're going to finish the regular season 24-7. Then get the #2 seed and pick up two more wins on the way to a rematch of last year's tourny final with SDSU.

Obviously winning would be a lock regardless, beyond the fact that they'd be an auto-bid, but more likely they end up 26-8. Easy in.
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They are not as safe as you think they are. Their NET ranking of 35 is good. However, their only two wins of significance are to LSU (29) and Florida (33). They couldn't get a big win against SDSU in either meeting. Those two non-conference wins don't completely erase the losses to Air Force (226), UNLV (112), and Boise St (87). You can talk about UNLV beating SDSU all you want, and there is no doubt that team has been playing better lately, but that is still a 15-14 team with no wins against power-6 teams and a loss to Texas St. Their current 11-seed in Lunardi's bracket seems about right.

If they run the table to the Mountain West tournament final, I agree they should be in, regardless of a loss. But if they slip up again before that (and don't win the MW tournament), they'll be sweating on Selection Sunday.
 

MplsGopher said:
Utah State is not a bubble team. No way. They're going to finish the regular season 24-7. Then get the #2 seed and pick up two more wins on the way to a rematch of last year's tourny final with SDSU.

Obviously winning would be a lock regardless, beyond the fact that they'd be an auto-bid, but more likely they end up 26-8. Easy in.
Click to expand...

I don't project future results, based on "if NCAA Tournament were held today".
 

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