USF Bubble Watch: February 28th
by Ken DeCelles on Feb 28, 2012 3:01 PM EST
in USF Bulls Basketball
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PrintWith USF sitting right on the bubble, we will do a daily rundown of fellow bubble teams and see who to root for each night. We will do this every night until USF is completely out of the picture or achieves lock status, whichever comes first.
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After a day lacking any soft of bubble goodness, we have a quartet of games for you to pay attention to tonight. Like always, all games are EST.
Connecticut at Providence, 7:00 PM
Who to root for: Providence
With the Huskies looking to right the ship and solidify their at-large profile before the Big East Tournament, a loss to the Friars would be a big blow even with their gaudy computer numbers.
DePaul at West Virginia, 7:00 PM
Who to root for: DePaul
West Virginia can't afford a loss to the Blue Demons before the USF game Saturday. DePaul is good for one random WTF win this year, and I have a good feeling that tonight is the night.
UCF at Memphis, 9:00 PM
Who to root for: Memphis
The Tigers will be looking to avenge their loss to the Knights in Orlando, and a win over UCF will push Memphis closer to the regular season title and the #1 seed in the conference tournament.
Xavier at Saint Louis, 9:00 PM
Who to root for: Saint Louis, but just barely
This is the beautiful bubble-on-bubble action we like to see here at V5. The Billikens are just a little higher on the S-curve than the Musketeers, and a loss would almost surely put USF over XU in most people's eyes.
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Wouldn't we want a WVU win?
A win keeps their RPI up higher for when we play them. Then if wWHEN we beat them on Saturday, our win looks better and we knock them down to the NIT.
Am I wrong in thinking this?
If WVU loses to DePaul, USF, and in the Big East Tournament that's 15 losses.
No way they get in with that.
Voodoo Five
The Toughest Blog in America
by Ken DeCelles on Feb 28, 2012 4:08 PM EST up reply actions
Yes and no.
Yes, West Virginia could be a Top 50 win, of which USF has only one (Seton Hall) at the moment.
But the Selection Committee looks closer than that. They examine how good your Top 50 wins were, and where they were (home/road/neutral). The difference between a 40 RPI WVU and a 60 RPI WVU would look better on the team sheet than it would in the final analysis.
As desperately as USF needs quality wins, bubble teams falling apart down the stretch would help the Bulls more.
Editor and Ombusdman, Voodoo Five, South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
Providence beat UConn!
Yay!
Editor and Ombusdman, Voodoo Five, South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
Saint Louis went on a huge run in the second half and won
And UCF got absolutely destroyed by Memphis. Excellent bubble night for USF, figuring that DePaul beating West Virginia was too much to ask for.
Voodoo Five - South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
by Jamie DeVriend on Feb 28, 2012 11:26 PM EST reply actions
UCF got absolutely destroyed by Memphis.
Editor and Ombusdman, Voodoo Five, South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
With UConn however
Say they are on the bubble, along with USF and whoever. The committee will absolutely find a way to get the defending champion in the tourney. I know it’s not supposed to work like that, but you can’t tell me they don’t look at that. A defending champ would absolutely have to have no case for making the NCAA to get bypassed. I wouldn’t like our chances at all on the bubble with them, bad losses or no.
Happened to Florida in 2008. Also, runner-up Ohio State.
Editor and Ombusdman, Voodoo Five, South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
Tru!
Good point, Yet, if all things are even (and I still imagine UConn would have a better RPI/SOS/MMORPG/Etc) I’d be willing to bet defending champs w future lotto picks get in over plucky underdog without much national appeal. In other words, if this were boxing, and UConn was the defending champ, we better knock them out and not have to depend on the scorecards to get us a decision.
It's hard to predict what they're going to do in any given year.
Some years they seem to favor the plucky underdogs (like 2006), other years they load up the bracket with mediocre major-conference teams (say 2008).
I think this year might be thlatter, since there aren’t a lot of “mid major” bubble teams — they’re either solidly in (Creighton/Wichita State, Murray State, Gonzaga/St Marys) or don’t have much of a resume if they don’t win the autobid (Iona, Middle Tennessee, Long Beach State, Oral Roberts)
Still, some value judgments will have be made, not only among major-conference teams with equally so-so resumes, but between those schools and mid-major schools with lots of wins. Is it better to play tough competition but take more losses? Because other than their level of competition in league play, USF and Oral Roberts are pretty similar.
Editor and Ombusdman, Voodoo Five, South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
Especially when Rick Scott makes all public schools install gigantic prayer hands on their quads.
Voodoo Five - South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
by Jamie DeVriend on Feb 29, 2012 5:41 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
And people ask me why I moved to Nebraska.
Well, they don’t ask so much anymore.
Editor and Ombusdman, Voodoo Five, South Florida Bulls SBN Blog
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