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>About all I have seen of Wichita State is in the NCAA tournament. You're right, they have some very good players.
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>Re Wisconsin besting Kentucky in the final four, that would be terrific but I wouldn't bet money on it.

After shooting my mouth off about Wichita State, they blew a lead in the MVC semifinals and lost to Illinois State. Granted, Illinois State is fighting for their lives, they need to win the MVC tourney to get into the NCAA tourney, but I was surprised that the Shockers lost. It'll probably drop them to a five or even a six seed in the NCAA tourney.

In other news, Murray State, which was 16-0 against the OVC this year in the regular season, lost in the OVC finals tonight to Belmont - on a last second three pointer at the end. Here's what drives me nuts - while Belmont now gets into the NCAA tourney, the bracketology gurus now have Murray State (the #25 team last week) on the "outside" of the field of 68 teams. It's rare, but even if you win your conference regular season, and even if you go undefeated during the regular conference season, losing in your conference tournament means you "could" miss out on the NCAA tourney if you're in a small or mid-major conference.

So if Illinois State upsets Iowa State in the MVC finals, the MVC would send three teams to the NCAA tourney (Illinois State as an automatic, and both Northern Iowa and Wichita State because their RPIs and BPIs are so good). But because the MVC historically sends only 1 or 2 teams, it would greatly reduce Murray State's chances. (Yes, that's how the selection process works). And if one other unexpected team wins their conference tournament (such as Pepperdine winning the WCC where BYU and Gonzaga are already at-large locks), Murray State would have no chance. That's always driven me nuts - that the regular season sometimes means zero, especially when your overall conference RPI is so bad.