Perhaps one of the most telling statements about how impressive the 2007-08 season has been for Saint Mary’s is that Saturday’s BracketBuster tilt with Kent State (9pm PT, ESPN2) is only the fourth-biggest game that tiny McKeon Pavilion has hosted this year. Randy Bennett’s team has knocked off Drake, Oregon, and Gonzaga in Moraga (along [...]

After a one-week hiatus, we’re back with the weekly Bubble Watch. A quick rundown of the teams featured last time around: Big 10: Indiana Hoosiers. IU is now officially a lock.  After two wins over Big Ten leaders Purdue and Michigan State, Indiana will be in the Tournament.  The bigger question is whether Kelvin Sampson [...]

Heading into a big game against the Vanderbilt Commodores tonight, Billy Gillispie’s team may be one of the hottest in the country (non-Stanford, non-Drake category). Despite a non-conference RPI of 210, which many argued would be Kentucky’s R.I.P., history suggests the Wildcats would be looking awfully strong for an NCAA bid if they can beat [...]

First, a review of last week’s Bubble teams: Big Ten – Ohio State Buckeyes. Ugh. Bucks had a chance to solidify their profile last week, but lost at a scrappy Iowa. We’re now starting the all-important “Last 10 games,” and as bad as the Big Ten is this year, Ohio State’s schedule is pretty rough. [...]

I recently had the distinct honor of attending a get-together organized by a group of University of San Francisco alums in which the Dons’ interim coach, Eddie Sutton, gave a brief presentation and answered questions for a small group of former players, coaches, fans, and one analyst (me). Sutton, approaching his 72nd birthday, without a [...]

First, an update on the teams featured in this space last week: Big Ten – Purdue Boilermakers. Perhaps no team answered the bell last week as well as the Boilers. Purdue is now 6-1 in the Big Ten and 3-2 against the RPI top 50 after defeating Penn State and Wisconsin.  Avoiding a trap game [...]

In my opinion, it’s still WAY too early to be talking about locks and bubbles, but I know fans are always eager to talk about how the bracket is shaping up at this point in the season. With that in mind, here are a few synopses of what are looking like “controversial” teams on Selection [...]

A few random musings as I was putting together the bracket this week before we begin our “Bubble Watch” next week in earnest: The four #1 seeds are pretty much set.  I don’t see these changing much in the next eight weeks.  Memphis and UCLA fans can book their tickets to Little Rock and Anaheim, [...]

Well, we’re nearly at the season’s unofficial midpoint, New Year’s Day. Most teams will be winding down their non-conference schedules in the next 10 days, and BracketNation will have a reasonable idea of where teams positioned themselves with their pre-conference play. Here are a few RPI surprises for you to nibble on that I discovered [...]

Well, the first projected bracket of the new season is up. Many of the preseason invitational tournaments are in the books, and teams are starting to build their “bodies of work” for the Selection Committee. It’s still AWFULLY early to start projecting NCAA Tournament teams; the RPI formula is completely unreliable with so few games [...]