This is one of my favorite things all year ever since I was a kid. It's like Christmas morning. I can't believe the CBS Sportsline guy and several other experts all have us in the tournament still. It will be very suspenseful this year. Should be fun!
Coming from a WVU fan - here is an impartial BE follower's view on your chances. The best thing that happened for you guys is Syracuse getting knocked off the bubble rather than Nova. If Syracuse was one of those bubble resume's they would be holding against yours you would have been in trouble. They won @ Wash, you didn't. They won @ Virginia, you failed to beat them at home. Their SOS of 10 is close enough where it wouldn't have mattered - in beating Georgetown, Marquette and Nova they had enough on their resume to stack up against your resume to take your spot.
As for Nova - I don't think so. They lost 2 less games than you, but their SOS doesn't come close. They finished 500 in conference, but they, unlike Syracuse (who had to play Georgetown twice), benefitted from the unbalanced schedule by getting Pitt twice (minus Fields), along with Syracuse and DePaul twice. Also - they didn't have to play a lot of the better schools on the road (UConn, WVU, Marquette, ND, etc.)
So as I said, I would have picked SU over Arizona - but I think you should get in ahead of Villanova (and it will literally be that close between you two.)
To be quite honest, I've never cared about selection Sunday. Ever since I can remember its always been, who do we get to pummel in the first round, and where do we have to do it? Even over the last few years, it was where will we be placed? And I could just wait to find out until the brackets were posted somewhere. This year, there's a sense of question if they'll even get in. While I believe they will, it's still not a sure thing, so this year for the first time in 23 years I care about Sunday night.
As far as how Arizona will do? We'll have to wait and see. I haven't seen Arizona play with any heart since they lost by a bucket to UCLA a few weeks ago. Bayless is stuck on complaining about not getting the calls he's used to, Budinger and Hill are playing well, when they get the ball in position. Nic Wise has been an animal... but Bayless' recent attitude is killing us. He's got to adjust to what's going on around him. He's cold, pass it. You're not getting foul calls the way you were earlier in the year, find another way to score aside from trying to draw contact from a double-team. Pass it around, make teams defend your jump shot. Learn to go left. If Arizona can relearn how to play together, they might get that 20th win. Otherwise we're lookin' at one and done.
I love the selection show usually more than 1st round games.
As for Bayless, I hope he does go pro next year. Good riddance. In a tight Stanford game KO has to call TO less than a minute into the 2nd half to chill the guy out? I would have benched him for his attitude, but then I am one of the few people that enjoys the college game more than the NBA game and actually believe the college game would only get more better if the Bayless types just went straight to the NBA or some 1 year development league and anyone choosing college should have to commit for a minimum 2 years.
Give me team full of Steve Kerr's and Kenny Lofton's and you can have a team full of Bayless's. I win. THe Olympics is proving team play is better than a roster full of super stars.
As for Bayless, I hope he does go pro next year. Good riddance.
Come on, are you kidding?! Yes, he needs to make adjustments, and yes he screwed up with a bad attitude against Stanford. I'm sure he was frustrated. But he's not disruptive to the team, and he's a great team player. Sorry, I totally disagree with you on your mentality.
Arizona is so unworthy of an at large bid. They won 4 of their last 12 games, and 2 wins came against an aweful Oregon St team. SOS can only carry you so far!
Joe Lunardi had the Cats as one of the last 4 in this morning on ESPN. If they get in as a 12 seed, I think they'll be able to upset a team in the first round. Ultimately, I'm not expecting the Cats to do much in the tourney, but I don't want to see Lute's streak broken by KO. I want him to have a chance to build on it for a couple more years before he finally retires. Also, I'd be curious to see if The Cats can do anything different with the 12 seed instead of that cursed 8 seed.
Now THIS would be irony...Bracketology has Arizona in as an 11 seed and lined up to play Marquette. Tell ya what, if the selection committee has the cojones to do that, it'll have to be with a big SEG at O'Neill.
To the comment about looking forward to today, I'm completely on board. It's something my older son and I look forward to every year, filling out our brackets and then razzing each other over our picks. Naterb, if that picture you use for your avatar is of your first and only kid, you have it on my gentleman's honor that some day you too will look forward to the selection show like you once might have Christmas.
