Daily bubble talk (Wednesday)

Bubble Talk

Thanks to the CAA Hoops blog for the link! The CAA Hoops blog covers Colonial Assocation basketball. Yes, that's the conference that produced George Mason. Speaking of the CAA, this week's episode of CSTV's Crystal Ball features Hofstra's coach Tom Pecora as a guest coach. (CSTV usually brings in active coaches during their March Madness coverage, so you may see more of him - unless of course he is busy with post-season action.

Daily TV listings are posted below, Comprehensive March Madness listings here (or the link on the left-hand column)

Austin Peay needed overtime to stay alive and prevent itself from becoming the first NIT automatic bid.

Jay Bilas was lecturing on the negatives of the RPI and the need for a replacement, but he didn't provide any replacement alternatives. Are there any?

Cry me a river: Jim Boeheim was criticizing teams for playing tough schedules and increasing their SOS/RPI because they lose to tough oppoenents (he said). Well Jimmy at least they didn't stay at the Carrier Dome and ate cupcakes. You can't have 20+ guaranteed wins every year by getting 10 guaranteed cupcakes wins at the Carrier Dome and at the same time have a high SOS/RPI. Not happening Mr Boeheim, unless you are appointed by the NCAA to redesign the RPI formula :)


How large is the bubble?

There are 34 at-large bids and 6 "bcs" automatic bids. Of those I project (based on current records _and_ a projection of what will happen) that 27 of them are guaranteed to be given to BCS teams. The remaining 13 bids (best case scenario assuming conference tourneys are won by "tourney locks") will be split between 21 "bcs" teams and all the other conferences. The pool will be further reduced by secure bids from so.illinois/creighton, a combination of AF/UNLV/BYU/SDSU since they can't all win their conference tourney. So a reasonable best-case scenario is a bubble of around 10 teams. This will get smaller if Memphis, or Nevada lose in their conf tourneys and the MVC tourney winner is someone other than Creighton/S.Illinois. This will get further reduced if the "bcs" conference tourneys are won by anyone other than the "bcs" locks. A bid is lost regardless but if a bubble team wins the automatic bid, the bubble gets smaller. If a non-bubble team wins an automatic bid, the bubble pool remains the same size. So if your team is on the bubble here is who you should root for: 1) the "locks" to win 2) the bubble teams to beat non-bubble teams when automatic bids are at stake (eg conference finals, or no locks remain in the field)


Not Bubble Talk

Conspiracy theory nominee Was the whole Vitale/Noah/Horford/NBA-scouts controversy a motivational ploy by Billy Donovan to fire up Noah? Everyone knows that Vitale can't keep his mouth shut... (and it didn't work last night). What makes this conpsiracy theory nominee sounds quasi-reasonable? Pitino is known for using motivational ploys and Donovan is a Pitino disciple.

Blast from the Past: Towards the end of FSN's "In Focus" series on the Duke/Carolina rivarly it was alleged that Coach K told Ole Roy (at Kansas at the time) after he beat him in the Final Four: "If you come to Carolina I'll beat your ***". Well Coach K that's not happening. Ole Roy is beating you handily recruiting-wise and on the court too as of late...

Revisited: Thad Matta's gum putback (3 second or 5 second?) and Appleby's refusal to shake hands with Oregon's Aaron Brooks (following the incident in last year's pac-10 tourney)


Mini-review of the Pistol Pete Diaries on Fox College Sports

An excellent original six-part series presented on Fox College Sports

It covers the life of Pistol Pete, the stories being told by Mark Kriegel, author of the latest book on Pistol Pete.

The only problem I have is that Fox College Sports has a problem with volume adjustment. The Diaries are much lower than the commercials, so you end up with a sonic boom when you get loud commercials.

Episode I: Mostly Pete's dad's story (Press Maravich), starting from his days in Steeltown

Episode II: Dad's story continues, including John Wooden and Clemson, and Pete's early years

Episode III: NC State, and Pete's first two years at LSU

Episode IV: debuts next week

Check my daily tv listings or your local tv listings for airtimes or read the book for all the details.