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DEL.ICIO.USTech, UGA waiting in the wings
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Waiting in the wings
• Georgia Tech (16-8, RPI 57): The Yellow Jackets are playing better but they MUST win at least one of the next two on the road at Florida State (17-7, RPI 29) and Duke (18-7, RPI 17).
• Louisville (17-8, RPI 54): The Cardinals, who were impressive in beating Pittsburgh Monday night, could jump into the field with a win at Marquette (20-5, RPI 22) on Saturday.
• Purdue (16-9, RPI 41): Wednesday night’s game at Indiana (17-6, RPI 15) is huge for the Boilermakers.
• Wright State (19-8, RPI 87): The Raiders are on top in the Horizon standings after beating Butler (22-3, RPI 31). If Wright State wins the conference tournament, Butler should still get in.
• Georgia (13-9, RPI 43): This is not a good time to be playing Kennesaw State.
In trouble
• West Virginia (18-6, RPI 40) needed a good road win after upsetting UCLA at home on Saturday. The Mountaineers didn’t get it, losing at Georgetown (71-53) Monday night.
• Gonzaga (18-9, RPI 64) drops and could fall further after suspending forward Josh Heytvelt. The Zags lost to Santa Clara (84-73) to snap their 50-game winning streak at home.
• Notre Dame (18-6, RPI 52): The Irish have won only one road game in the Big East this season. They cannot afford another bad loss.
• Texas Tech (15-10, RPI 47): The Red Raiders have lost five straight. With road games at Texas A&M and Texas coming up in the next seven days, they are about done.
• Michigan State (17-8, RPI 42): The Spartans have lost four straight and must absolutely beat Michigan (17-8, RPI 59) tonight at East Lansing.
BARNHART’S TOP 65 FOR TUESDAY, FEB. 13
1: Florida (SEC champ)
2: North Carolina (ACC champ)
3: Wisconsin (Big Ten champ)
4: Texas A&M (Big 12 champ)
5: UCLA (Pac-10 champ)
6: Ohio State (at-large)
7: Kansas (at-large)
8: Pittsburgh (Big East champ)
9: Washington State (at-large)
10: Memphis (C-USA champ)
11: Marquette (at-large)
12: Kentucky (at-large)
13: Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley Champ)
14: Boston College (at-large)
15: Virginia (at-large)
16: Oregon (at-large)
17: Butler (Horizon champ)
18: Indiana (at-large)
19: Air Force (Mountain West champ)
20: Oklahoma State (at-large)
21: Villanova (at-large)
22: Virginia Tech (at-large)
23: Southern Cal (at-large)
24: Stanford (at-large)
25: Nevada (WAC champ)
26: Arizona (at-large)
27: Duke (at-large)
28: Florida State (at-large)
29: BYU (at-large)
30: Georgetown (at-large)
31: UNLV (at-large)
32: Tennessee (at-large)
33: Creighton (at-large)
34: Texas (at-large)
35: Vanderbilt (at-large)
36: Gonzaga (West Coast champ)
37: Missouri State (at-large)
38: Maryland (at-large)
39: Notre Dame (at-large)
40: Kansas State (at-large)
41: Clemson (at-large)
42: Alabama (at-large)
43: Arkansas (at-large)
44: Michigan State (at-large)
45: VCU (Colonial champ)
46: Illinois (at-large)
47: Xavier (A-10 champ)
48: West Virginia (at-large)
49: Holy Cross (Patriot champ)
50: Davidson (Southern champ)
51: Winthrop (Big South champ)
52: Long Beach State (Big West champ)
53: TAMU-CC (Southland champ)
54: Akron (MAC champ)
55: Vermont (America East champ)
56: Oral Roberts ((Mid-Continent champ)
57: South Alabama (Sun Belt champ)
58: Penn (Ivy League champ)
59: Marist (Metro Atlantic champ)
60: Austin Peay (Ohio Valley champ)
61: Delaware State (MEAC champ)
62: East Tenn. St. (Atlantic Sun champ)
63: Weber State (Big Sky champ)
64: Jackson State (SWAC champ)
65: Central Conn. (Northeast champ)
Conference Breakdown
ACC:8
Big East: 6
Big Ten: 5
Big 12: 5
Missouri Valley: 3
Mountain West: 3
Pac-10: 6
SEC: 6
NOTE: There are 23 conferences that will receive only one bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment | Categories: Tony Barnhart's daily picks
Comments
By David Clark
February 13, 2007 06:23 PM | Link to this
Why all the love for Vandy?
Their RPI is worse than Georgia’s, they have a similar record in conference, they just got blown out by Tennessee, and they have losses to Wake Forest (who Georgia beat), Furman, and App. State.
How are the ‘Dores such a lock and Georgia is “waiting in the wings?”
By Matt
February 13, 2007 08:39 PM | Link to this
Because Vandy has won a ton of road games against good teams (UK, LSU, up 12 on Florida before the Gators got hot) - who’s the best team UGA has beaten on the road? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Stick to football, morons.
By Jack
February 13, 2007 09:18 PM | Link to this
Hey Matt, you know what UGA beat those teams as well UK, LSU and was up by 10 and even up at half in Gainesville, “before UF got hot.” Who’s the moron now big fella? If you are going to argue at least come with something good.
By Big Orange Frank
February 13, 2007 10:03 PM | Link to this
As usual, alot of thought has gone into Tony’s rankings, but since he stated (last week) that UGA was in and UTenn was on the bubble, the Vols are 3-0 including two quality wins over top 20 teams and rivals, Vandy and UK. The cream rises to the top as March approaches…… I wonder how the SEC west will shake out?
By David
February 13, 2007 11:00 PM | Link to this
Matt- Vandy has two quality road wins (UK and LSU…though I think most teams could win at LSU the way the Tigers have been playing down the stretch); I just can’t consider that a “ton.”
Vandy has some good wins, some pretty awful losses (2 against the SoCon? Mercy.), a schedule that isn’t as good as Georgia’s, an RPI that isn’t as good as Georgia’s, a comparable SEC record, and has won one and lost one against Georgia.
Right now, at worst Georgia is on par with Vandy. That isn’t to say the Dawgs won’t fall off with the Mercer injury- we’ll see about that- but to hype Vandy while downplaying Georgia seems a bit strange.
By BuLLdawg
February 13, 2007 11:21 PM | Link to this
You are so full of crap Tony Blowhart : 8 ACC and only 6 SEC. You are and only have ever been a ACC fan from the state of North Carolina.
By JJ
February 14, 2007 07:59 AM | Link to this
It is quite simple….as of today UGA would be the 4th team taken from the SEC. They aren’t on the bubble, they are in. Firmly. As is Vandy (although they do not deserve a bid ahead of UGA.) Alabama is in, but not by much. Arkansas is out.
The fact that Tony has Oklahoma State as his #20 team in the Selection order, shows you something. I don’t even think they’d get a bid if the selections were done today.
Michigan State is also not even in the picture as of today, although winning last night didn’t hurt them. They are still under .500 in their conference.
I see that Tony moved Georgetown up in his seeding, but they are still way too low. They’d be a 4 seed if the selection took place today.
Granted, all this can and will change, but the fact is that this is the way it is right now. Tony needs to go get some advice from Lunardi, who has been picking brackets for about a decade and is rarely wrong on Selection Sunday.
By George P. Burdell
February 14, 2007 09:25 AM | Link to this
Everyone (including Lunardi)is picking 8 or 9 for the ACC and only 5 or 6 for the SEC. Its not just Tony so get over your idea that the SEC is the only conference that matters.
No one knows which, if any, teams will come from the West. Somebody has to win those games so I’m sure at least one or two teams come out of that division but it is anyone’s guess as to which teams it will actually be.
By BuzzedinGwinnett
February 14, 2007 10:20 AM | Link to this
I thought I had seen a stat last week that UCLA and Vandy have the most wins over ranked teams than anyone in the country with five or six. That may be what is helping the ‘Dores. Also UGA’s wins over LSU and UK were at home. Vandy beat them on the road. UGA beat WF, while VU lost to them, but VU beat Tech, while UGA lost to them. There’s still a lot of ball left to be played for UGA to play itself in or out of the tourney as there is for Tech and VU.
By Not Disappointed
February 14, 2007 10:28 AM | Link to this
GA Tech appears to be making a move towards March madness. There’s still alot of games to play….. Any thoughts?
By Anonymous
February 14, 2007 11:11 AM | Link to this
Now there’s something you don’t see every day: BuLLdawg just made a 2-sentence, 3-line blog post. Ironically, it was so short I almost missed it!!!!
By Navigator
February 14, 2007 12:08 PM | Link to this
As it is now the major conferences only have 45 places to fill. I think the NCAA could make a single change to the tournament that would be fair for all. There are eight divisions of the tournament. Simply make the bottom eight (last team in each tournament division) as play in games. That takes care of 16 no name conferences playing for eight spots. That would allow the major conferences eight additional slots for teams that play a real schedule. This would not lengthen the tournaments, because one playin game already exist. You just change the playins to eight. I know the NCAA is too steeped in politics to even consider such a suggestion, too bad!