Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Feb. 4

The Breakdown
Our list of bubble teams this week was the longest it's been all season, and because of that, we decided to take a look ahead at what teams had left on their schedules to try to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

With Arizona State, Miami-FL, and Villanova dropping out, there were three spots in the field up for grabs. The first of those spots went to BYU, thanks to the strength of the MWC (it’s 9th in conference RPI) and because we think that both UNLV and BYU, with their remaining schedules, should win enough games in the league to earn a bid. For the second spot, we had to figure out the mess that is the ACC bubble, and in the end we went with Maryland over North Carolina State, Miami-FL, and Virginia Tech for a couple of reasons. The Terps have the best win thus far out of those three teams (their W at UNC), they have a very favorable schedule remaining, and big picture-wise they have the best shot to get to 9-7 in conference, which should get them a bid. Virginia Tech, despite having one more win in conference and a win over Maryland (at home) under their belts, has no other good conference wins and has four very tough road games left. N.C. State’s schedule is extremely hard as well, and at 3-4 right now, they will have a hard time getting to nine wins. At 2-5, the same can be said for the slumping ‘Canes, who lost two more on the road last week. The third and final bracket spot went to Cal which, thanks to a huge week from Ryan Anderson, swept Washington and Washington State last week. Looking ahead, the Bears have a slightly better chance to get to .500 in conference than Oregon does (the two teams play at Cal this week) and if they can do that, they’ll earn the league's sixth bid.

The two interesting holdovers in this bracket are Mississippi State and Illinois State. The Aggies missed out on two chances to boost their resume this week by losing to Arkansas and Tennessee, but they are still 5-2 in the SEC with a not-so-difficult schedule left. They should win their two games this week (Alabama at home, Auburn on the road) and we like their chances of getting to 10 or 11 wins in conference. Our inclusion of Illinois State, meanwhile, is less of a projection and more of a prediction. The Redbirds have not lost at home all season, and we think that they will upset 15th-ranked Drake in front of what should be a rowdy crowd at Doug Collins Court on Tuesday. (The Bulldogs can’t really go undefeated in conference, can they??)

The only other interesting tidbits from this week’s field are the exclusions of Syracuse and UMass. We know we are in the minority in leaving these teams out, but we just don’t like the fact that the Orange have feasted on the bottom of the Big East so far or the fact that they have a brutal schedule left. We also don’t like that the Minutemen slipped up at Saint Louis over the weekend to fall under .500 in the A-10, and that they got swept by St. Joseph’s. If the A-10 is going to get five bids, a lot of things both in the league and across the country are going to have to break right. The way UMass has played of late, four bids is looking like a much safer bet.

Note: None of Monday’s results were taken into account when making this week's bracket.

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Out This Bracket
Arizona State, Miami-FL, Villanova, Cal State Northridge, Siena, Winthrop, Hampton, Wagner

In This Bracket
BYU, California, Maryland, Pacific, Rider, UNC-Asheville, Morgan State, Sacred Heart

Last Four In
California, Mississippi State, Maryland, Illinois State

Last Four Out
Syracuse, Massachusetts, Miami-FL, Oregon

Next Four Out
Seton Hall, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, George Mason

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Conference Breakdown
Big East (7), Big XII (6), Pac-10 (6), SEC (6), Big Ten (5), ACC (4), A-10 (4), MVC (2), MWC (2), WCC (2)

America East - UMBC

ACC - Duke, North Carolina, Clemson, Maryland

Atlantic Sun - Jacksonville

A-10 - Xavier, Rhode Island, Dayton, St. Joseph’s

Big East - Georgetown, Connecticut, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Louisville, West Virginia

Big Sky - Northern Arizona

Big South - UNC-Asheville

Big Ten - Wisconsin, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State

Big 12 - Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Baylor

Big West - Pacific

Colonial - VCU

C-USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Rider

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Morgan State

MVC - Drake, Illinois State

MWC - UNLV, BYU

Northeast - Sacred Heart

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona, USC, California

Patriot - Lafayette

SEC - Tennessee, Mississippi, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi State

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Stephen F. Austin

Summit - Oral Roberts

Sun Belt - South Alabama

SWAC - Alabama State

WAC - Utah State

WCC - St. Mary's, Gonzaga

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The Seeds
The 1s
Memphis, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas

The 2s
UCLA, Tennessee, Georgetown, Wisconsin

The 3s
Stanford, Michigan State, Texas, Xavier

The 4s
Drake, Connecticut, Butler, Indiana

The 5s
Kansas State, Washington State, Texas A&M, Arizona

The 6s
Marquette, St. Mary’s, Rhode Island, Notre Dame

The 7s
Pittsburgh, Dayton, Gonzaga, Oklahoma

The 8s
Mississippi, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Purdue

The 9s
Louisville, Clemson, Arkansas, West Virginia

The 10s
USC, Florida, UNLV, St. Joseph’s

The 11s
Ohio State, BYU, California, Mississippi State

The 12s
Maryland, Illinois State, Kent State, South Alabama

The 13s
Davidson, VCU, Utah State, Oral Roberts

The 14s
Stephen F. Austin, Rider, Pacific, UNC-Asheville

The 15s
Cornell, Lafayette, Northern Arizona, Morgan State

The 16s
UMBC, Sacred Heart, Jacksonville, Austin Peay (Play-In Game), Alabama State (Play-In Game)

The Bracket
(Bracket courtesy Matt Reeves)










Questions? Comments? E-mail Bracketology 101 at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com

BracketBuster Schedule Announced

While we put the finishing touches on this week's bracket, check out the recently announced BracketBuster schedule. It's a decent slate of games, with the top teams in the MVC, MAC, Colonial, and Horizon all participating. The headliners are Drake at Butler, Kent State at St. Mary's, and George Mason at Ohio.

Times and networks for each game will be revealed on Feb. 11.

Friday, Feb. 22
UC Santa Barbara at Utah State
Davidson at Winthrop

Saturday, Feb. 23
VCU at Akron
Siena at Boise State
UW-Milwaukee at Bradley
Drake at Butler
Rider at Cal State Northridge
Marist at Cleveland State
George Mason at Ohio
Creighton at Oral Roberts
Kent State at Saint Mary's
Nevada at Southern Illinois
Miami (OH) at Valparaiso

Sunday, Feb. 24
Wright State at Illinois State

B101's Dean's List-Academic Probation - Week of Jan. 28-Feb. 3

Dean's List-Academic Probation is a weekly column that analyzes all of the highlights and lowlights from the previous week's games. The teams, players, conferences, etc. that deserve praise for what they accomplished over the past week make our Dean's List; those deserving ridicule are put on Academic Probation.

Here are this week's honorees:

Dean’s List
A.J. Price
There may not be a player that has been called on to do more for his team over the past two weeks than Price – and the sophomore guard has responded by playing the best ball of his career. Price’s recent scoring tear continued this week as the red-hot Huskies – still playing without suspended leading scorer Jerome Dyson – picked up two more huge wins to extend their winning streak to five games. Price, who is averaging 20 points, six assists and five rebounds over that span, had 20 points in UConn’s 69-67 victory over Louisville at home on Monday and had 21 points, including a key driving lay-in with just over a minute to play, as the Huskies downed Pitt 60-53 on Saturday. Those wins shot UConn up to No. 19 in this week’s polls, and earned them a four seed in our latest Field of 65.

Kansas State
Plaxico Burress wasn’t the only athlete backing up a bold prediction last week. POY candidate Michael Beasley, who had previously guaranteed that Kansas State would break “The Streak” and beat rival Kansas at home for the first time in 24(!) years, scored 25 points and had six rebounds to lead the Wildcats to a thrilling upset. Bill Walker had 22 points and Jacob Pullen added 20 for Kansas State, which celebrated in style after the win, dancing on the scorer’s table and high-fiving the sea of purple-clad fans that had stormed the floor.

Ryan Anderson
Anderson might be the best big man in a big conference that no one knows about. His incredible sophomore season continued last week, as Cal ripped off two huge wins against Washington and Washington State to improve to 4-5 in the Pac-10. Anderson had 27 points and nine rebounds in a 69-64 win over the Cougars on Thursday and then blew up for 33 points and 17 rebounds in a 79-75 win over the Huskies on Saturday. The 6-foot-10 forward scored 15 of those 33 points in a row in one stretch in the second half, as the Bears overcame a five-point halftime deficit to earn the win.

Stanford
For months, it looked like Washington State would be the only Pac-10 team to pose a challenge to UCLA. But after another two-win week – including a road victory over Wazzu – it’s upstart Stanford that is suddenly breathing down the Bruins’ necks. Led by Brook Lopez, who scored a career high 31 points against Washington on Thursday and by twin bro Robin, who made a huge lay-up late against Washington State on Saturday, the Cardinal extended its winning streak to five this week and improved to 7-2 in conference. They should be able to push that mark to 9-2 this week with home games against Oregon and Oregon State.

Texas A&M
A little home cooking worked wonders for A&M’s previously-unimpressive Big XII resume last week. The Aggies crushed Texas in College Station on Wednesday (they led by 22 at one point), and then erased a shaky first half to beat Oklahoma 60-52 on Saturday to improve to 4-3 in conference. Some stingy defense and the play of senior forward Joseph Jones proved to be the keys to both games. Jones had 14 points in just 21 minutes against the Longhorns, and then scored 18 points to go along with six rebounds versus the Sooners.

Also receiving votes: Arkansas (the Razorbacks proved they belonged in the bracket by beating fellow SEC bubble boys Mississippi State and Florida last week), Wisconsin (the Badgers crushed Indiana at home and Minnesota on the road last week to move into a first-place tie with Purdue in the Big Ten), Penn State (the free-falling Nittany Lions pulled off the biggest upset of the week, stunning – and rushing on – 7th-ranked Michigan State on Saturday), Drake (the victories keep on coming for the Bulldogs, who beat Creighton and Indiana State this week to stay perfect in the MVC), Chris Douglas-Roberts (Memphis stayed unbeaten this week thanks to two huge performances by Douglas-Roberts; he scored 30 points in the Tigers’ win at Houston on Wednesday, and had 24 points and seven rebounds in a much-closer-than-expected home win over UTEP on Saturday), Derek Wright (the senior guard had 43 points – 32 more than his season average – and added seven steals in Austin Peay’s triple OT loss to Southeast Missouri State on Monday), Will Thomas (the senior forward had 21 points and 15 rebounds in George Mason’s 63-51 win over VCU on Tuesday), Jason Thompson (Rider’s underrated senior forward had a Beasley-esque 23 points and 21 rebounds in the Broncs’ win at Siena on Saturday), Luke Harangody (the sophomore continued his recent tear by scoring a career-high 31 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in Notre Dame’s win over Providence on Thursday, and by scoring 29 points to go along with 14 rebounds as the Irish downed DePaul on Saturday), Paul Harris (the sophomore scored a career-high 28 points in Syracuse’s win at Villanova on Saturday), Kevin Love (make it 13 double-doubles for Love this season; he had two more this week as UCLA swept Arizona State and Arizona at Pauley Pavilion), Chase Budinger (the super-soph had 29 points and eight boards in Arizona’s win at USC on Thursday), Ben McCauley (his put-back dunk at the buzzer gave North Carolina State a crazy 67-65 win over Wake Forest on Sunday), Eddie Sutton (Sutton finally got his 800th career win this week, as San Francisco rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat Pepperdine 85-82 in Malibu on Saturday)

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Academic Probation
Miami-FL
Winning on the road in conference isn’t easy for any team, but for Miami it appears to be impossible. The Hurricanes dropped two more road contest last week (at Wake Forest and at Duke) to fall to 0-4 on the road in the ACC. The loss at Cameron Indoor was understandable, but what really hurt the ‘Canes’ resume this week was falling in Winston-Salem to the Demon Deacons. In losing 70-68, Miami missed out at an opportunity to pick up a nice road win and, more importantly, a chance to deal a fellow ACC bubble team a home loss. At 2-5 in conference, the Canes have a ton of work to do if then plan on eventually getting to 9-7 – a mark that should guarantee them a bid.

Arizona State
The Sun Devils’ freefall toward irrelevance continued this week, as they dropped two more games (at UCLA and at USC) to extend their current losing streak to five. Losing to the Bruins on Thursday was certainly excusable, but the final score wasn’t – ASU was down 22 at the half and lost by 33. They weren’t much better at USC two days later, losing by 13 to the Trojans. The Sun Devils are now locked in a tie for sixth in the crowded Pac-10, and have the tough task of playing at Arizona in their only game this week.

Villanova
The only big conference team tumbling faster than Arizona State is Villanova, which has now dropped five of seven (six of eight if you count their blowout loss at St. Joseph’s yesterday) to fall to 13-8 overall and 3-6 in the Big East. Ranked in both polls and slotted as high as a seven seed in our bracket just two weeks ago, Villanova is playing like a team that may not be heard from again. Their last five losses have all been by double figures, the most disturbing of which was their 14-point loss at home to Syracuse on Saturday.

Washington State
The Cougars picked a poor week to lose their shooting touch. They made just eight of 32 three point attempts in home losses to Cal and Stanford last week – losses that dropped them to a less-than-stellar 5-4 in the Pac-10. Wazzu also had its issues from the free throw line against the Cardinal, making just four of their final nine attempts from the stripe in a 67-65 OT loss. Senior Kyle Weaver missed a key FT with just under 10 seconds left that would given the Cougars a late lead in that game, and then missed another one in the closing seconds of overtime that would have tied the game.

Jerome Dyson
Most fans in the Nutmeg State figured Doug Wiggins (who had already failed two drug tests this season) would be the one in the most trouble after he and Dyson were caught with alcohol in a car and were subsequently drug tested. In the end, though, it was Dyson’s love of marijuana that got exposed, landing him a 30-to-60 day suspension. UConn coach Jim Calhoun has still not said when Dyson will return to the team.

Also receiving votes: Ty Lawson’s left ankle (UNC’s lightning-quick point guard sprained his ankle against Florida State on Sunday, leaving his availability for Wednesday’s showdown with Duke in serious doubt), Missouri’s Jason Horton and Stefhon Hannah (Horton, a senior guard, was arrested Friday on a misdemeanor assault charge following a weekend brawl that left Hannah, the Tigers’ leading scorer, with a broken jaw; five Missouri players were suspended indefinitely by coach Mike Anderson for their roles in the incident, which occurred at a night club in downtown Columbia), Wake Forest (the Demon Deacons missed out on a shot at making this week’s bracket by blowing a seven-point halftime lead and losing a heartbreaker to N.C. State), Mississippi (the Rebels followed up their big win over Vanderbilt with a home loss to South Carolina), West Virginia and St. Mary’s (the Mountaineers and Gaels had bad hiccups at home last week too, falling to Cincinnati and San Diego, respectively), Dalonte Hill’s blood alcohol level (the Kansas State assistant was arrested early Thursday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence, hours after the Wildcats upset Kansas; he has since been charged with a DUI and has been suspended one game)

B101's Top 10 Games To Watch This Weekend

Here's our take on the 10 biggest games of the weekend...

Syracuse vs. Villanova
A huge bubble battle in the Big East, with the loser in serious tourney trouble.

Pittsburgh vs. UConn
A battle to determine who the second best team is out of the Big East.

Baylor vs. Texas
The Bears were able to win at A&M (something Texas couldn't do); can they win in Austin as well?

Dayton vs. Rhode Island
An A-10 matchup to determine the second best team in the conference.

Stanford vs. Washington State
The streaking Cardinal look to hold on to second place in the Pac-10 against the slumping Cougars.

Florida vs. Arkansas
The Gators are playing well and the Razorbacks seemed to have gotten back on track, so this should be a good one.

Oklahoma vs. Texas A&M
A battle between two middle-of-the-pack teams in the tough-to-figure-out Big XII.

Tennessee vs. Mississippi State
This is the kind of win the Bulldogs need to add to their resume to solidify their position as a tourney team.

Arizona vs. UCLA
It's tough to pick against the Bruins, but the Wildcats are definitely playing well enough right now to pull off the upset.

North Carolina vs. Florida State
Probably a must win at this point for FSU's tourney hopes.

Also receiving votes: West Virginia vs. Providence, Boston College vs. Clemson, Arizona State vs. USC, Wake Forest vs. North Carolina State, Super Bowl XLII