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>>Miid-major teams who don't win their conferences don't have a very good record in the touhney (channeling Dick Vitale), do they? Or even if they do win their conferences. I don't blame the selection committee for taking a dim view. They are locked into about half the choices. For the other half, they want teams who are in it to win it. I don't think it's a big money bias. The big 5 or 6 conferences are just where the best players tend to go.
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>Tomorrow's Selection Sunday is going to be very interesting. Some observations:
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>- Iowa State is the best team in the big 12. They beat KU 2 of 3 times this year. Iowa State has won 5 straight games, and in all five they were down by double digits in the 2nd half. This team knows when to turn it on. It would not surprise me if they leapfrog KU and get a 2 seed in one of the brackets, while KU drops to a 3 seed.
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>- The first thing I'm going to look for is whether Murray State makes the tournament. They didn't do well in the non-conference schedule, then went 16-0 in the Ohio Valley, and then lost in the OVA tournament game to Belmont. I don't know if it's ever happened where a team went undefeated in the regular conference schedule but didn't get an at-large bid because they lost their conference tournament.
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>- All season long I thought Nova was playing with house money - turns out they are really good.
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>- I watched a ton of conference tournaments the last 3 days. The most exciting ones were the A-10. But sadly, they beat up on each other so badly that they'll probably all get knocked out in the 2nd round. Then again, I hope that happens to the ACC teams. I hate the ACC so much, almost as much as the Big 10.
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>- My final four teams....here we go. Iowa State, Arizona, Kentucky, and Wisconsin. Or maybe Nova instead of Iowa State. I'd like to say Gonzaga and Wichita State will make the elite 8, but hard to say. KU is totally unpredictable. And if I had to pick one unlikely team to make a magic run, it would probably be Michigan State, who is flying below the radar right now.
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>I love this time of the year. I've got Katy saying, "Daddy, there are so many teams on the bubble right now" :)

Indeed, that KU/Iowa State game was disappointing, but certainly not surprising.

Wow, Iowa State in your final four or at least up there.