Where Art Thou Mid Majors?

When the NCAA decide to expand the tourney to 68 teams it was debated whether that would help the mid majors or just send a few more middle of the pack bcs teams dancing. Well, so far this year the mid majors aren't helping their case that they deserve more at large bids. The usual suspects Memphis, Gonzaga, Butler, and Xavier have struggled. Although Xavier did get a big road win at Georgia and took sole lead in the A10 with their win at Duquesne today. The other programs have missed opportunities for signature wins and even took some bad losses in conference. They all may need to win their conference tourneys if they want to go dancing. And no other programs have stepped up to fill their shoes. No, I don't count BYU and San Diego St. as mid majors. Teams like St. Mary's, Wichita St., Utah St. and Old Dominion have failed to capitalize on the missteps of the aforementioned teams. Utah St. has dominated the WAC, except for the road loss to Idaho this week, and St. Mary's won at Gonzaga, but we will have to see if that will be enough to get at large bids this year with the expanded field and weak bubble. If I were them though I wouldn't leave it to chance. Bracketbuster weekend is this weekend and the St. Mary's Utah St. game could be the best of the bunch. The winner could put themselves in the best position to earn an at large berth from the mid major pool. It was a big week for Pitt as they knocked off West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl and cross state rival Villanova both on the road. Pitt is making their case for a number 1 seed. Speaking of 'Nova, it was a bad week. Losing to Pitt is one thing, but giving up a 4 point play to Rutgers to lose that game really hurt. Ohio St. finally lost, blowing a big lead in the 2nd half in Madison. Really no harm done here though as they are still a number 1 seed and legit title contender. Notre Dame continues to stay hot with an ot win over Louisville and a blowout at S. Florida. They remain in the 3 seed range. Georgetown continues to beat hot too as they won at Syracuse and knocked off Marquette today. They are in the 3 seed range as well. Speaking of Syracuse, they continue to nose dive. Losing to Louisville Saturday after the home loss to Georgetown. You have to wonder how good they are because the did not challenge themselves out of conference. Tennessee missed 2 opportunities for big wins losing at Kentucky and Florida. Tennessee has some big wins on their resume, but needs to start winning again or they could be in danger. Kentucky's road woes continue as they went on to lose at Vandy so Florida is in the driver's seat now for the East title. Vandy also added a home win over Bama who continues to lead the West. Texas and Kansas continue to impress as they would be my other 2 choices for number 1 seeds and Texas A&M got 2 big road wins in ot to stop their losing ways. St. John's made their case to be off the bubble even better this week by demolishing UConn and winning at Cincinnati. Duke beat Carolina but I still see them as a 2 seed for now. BC beat Maryland in an important bubble game in the ACC. UNLV missed a chance to pad their resume with a home loss to San Diego St. and Jimmer Fredette did his thing as BYU beat rival Utah. He is good. Well there is the week in review if I missed something important to you let me know. Now time for blind resume. Team A 19-6 (7-3) RPI 32 SoS 48 Top 50 record 3-3 Top 50 wins: So. Miss (2) UAB Bad Losses: SMU. Team B 16-8 (8-2) RPI 85 SoS 118 Top 50 Record 2-2 Top 50 wins: Kentucky and Tennessee Bad losses: Iowa, St. Peters, Providence, and Arkansas. Team C 17-8 (6-7) RPI 37 SoS 22 Top 50 record 3-6 Key wins: North Carolina, West Virginia, Purdue Bad losses: Virginia and Indiana. The source I use for this data is realtimerpi.com. So if you had 1 spot left and it was down to these 3 teams who would you put in? This is just some of the data we look at when we are completing our tourney field. When it comes down to the final few teams its like splitting hairs. A lot of debating, arguing, and number crunching takes place in the wee hours of Sunday morning. The teams are: Team A Memphis Team B Alabama and Team C Minnesota. Good night.