SMU considered a bubble team...

[The PonyGrad]

We are BPI #19, Michigan just killed MSU and are now BPI #25!

[skyscraper]

Glad to hear that about the VIPs. Nice that the stars will come out to shine for our ESPN game.

[smustatesman]

In Philly it's time to party like a bunch of Romans in 70 AD.

In the year 70AD the Romans tore down the temple in Jerusalem.

[smusic 00]

So you're saying there were no orgies? Doesn't sound very Roman to me.

[mrydel]

Actually, the Cowboys may be returning on Sunday. Be forewarned.

I would expect to see quite a few Cowboys at Moody on Sunday along with a former President.

Might see a few Mavericks as well - as the Cincy game is sandwiched between two Mavs home games.

In fact, someone should leave Mark Cuban a ticket so that he can see some good basketball.

I heard some whispers from the ticket office that they are struggling to fulfill all of the VIP requests.

My request came through.

[smustatesman]

So you're saying there were no orgies? Doesn't sound very Roman to me.

No your right. There were many Roman orgies. One even attained its own name, "Polanski"

[mrydel]

Romo most likely will not be there. He is playing in the Pebble Beach Pro Am.

[austinponie]

NCAA Pre-Selection Show Saturday...

http://www.cardchronicle.com/2017/1/24/ ... -coming-in

Someone could surmise what remaining 28 teams will comprise the field.
Remaining games, SOS, Power rankings, number of automatic qualifiers, etc...

I'm still stewing about 2014...

[indianmustang]

Would be nice if smu sneaks in top16 show

[PonyLawExpress]

Would be nice if smu sneaks in top16 show

I keep up with most of the people brackets and there in 0% chance we will sneak into the Top 16 show (especially since its before Cincy), unless they discuss teams not in the top 16. We dont have the marquee wins right now to be near a 4 or 5 seed. We have no bad losses on the resume (since Boise has played well and UM has won some games) and several good wins, but only 1 top 50 win . We are firmly a 7-8 seed right now.

From looking a projections and considering BPI, KenPom and RPI I would guess:
If we beat Cincy and sweep the rest of conference play I would guess we would end up a 5-6 seed depending on the Conference Tourney.
If we lose to Cincy and win out or Beat Cincy and slip up on the road (16-2) I would assume we pull a 6-7 seed depending on the Conference Tourney.
If we finish 15-3 in conference I would guess a 7-10 seed, depending on the Conference Tourney.

Anything worse we are on the bubble, but we would really have to lose 4-5 games down the stretch not to make the tourney. Our resume isn't really strong (because of lack of marquee wins), but its also not weak like alot of teams looking for a spot or how its been in the past for us (since we dont have any bad losses and a good amount of solid wins).

[mrydel]

No one making any decisions will see us tonight. We are bookended by NC/Duke and UCLA/Oregon.

[gostangs]

they see anyone in the top 25 well enough. 16 pt road win against temple is still worth something.

Now beating Cinn would really be worth something.

[Harry0569]

The Watch has cast its Sauronian eye in Houston's general direction. Sure, the Cougars lack quality wins and have nothing interesting on their resume, but, hey, so goes the bubble. They're not here yet, but they might get a long-shot spot with a win at Tulsa on Saturday. (Which, by the way, features a Kelvin Sampson/Frank Haith coaching showdown, the basketball equivalent of a windowless van with "scholarships" spray-painted on the side. Seems legit.)

Cincinnati [22-2 (11-0), RPI: 15, SOS: 74] Is this the best team of coach Mick Cronin's tenure? It's beginning to look that way. The Bearcats play a physical, imposing brand of defense that makes up for occasional rebounding woes with devastating first-shot defense, particularly inside the arc, where opponents shoot a 39.6 percent that's second worst in the country. Meanwhile, they don't turn the ball over and crash the offensive glass -- all the things that make Cronin's teams good year over year, only dialed up. Their resume doesn't have the kind of high-end wins, though beating Xavier isn't totally far off, but in any case this is a very good team with a very good nitty-gritty sheet. As it should be.

SMU [21-4 (11-1), RPI: 25, SOS: 101] After starting 4-3, SMU's crucial win at Temple makes it 17-1 in its past 18 games, and the Mustangs were a bucket from a win at Cincinnati on Jan. 12. Former Duke transfer Semi Ojeleye has spent all season proving why he was signed by no less august a program than the Blue Devils in the first place; his latest demonstration came Thursday, with a 30-point, 10-rebound performance. We moved Tim Jankovich's team into the "should be in" category after that victory, and deservedly so. In the meantime, we can't wait for Sunday, when Cincinnati makes its return visit. SMU has spent the past month and change gradually raising statistically minded folks' eyebrows. Now we get to test our hypotheses: Just how good are these guys, anyway?

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bubblewatch

[DiamondM]

The Bubble Watch explained that a Lock means a LOCK, which is why good teams the *should* be locks are not yet labeled as such:

An injury, a downturn, a weird shooting slump, a cold spell down the stretch -- the strange pitfalls other teams as empirically good as West Virginia could easily weather are things that might all of a sudden make the Mountaineers' seed, if not its tournament bid, vulnerable. It widens the possibility space. It makes us nervous. Which brings us to the second point: We don't want to move locks. Words mean things. And if there's a chance a team could evolve into not-a-lock by the end of the season, we'd rather play it safe.

[DiamondM]

Another thing about the Bubble Watch that I love is that it lists the conferences alphabetically. None of this "let's list our favorite big conferences first" crap. If you're interested in college basketball, the NCAA tourney, and the bubble, you have to read about all the conferences. And we're alphabetically first, so we get top billing.