Saturday Discussion

I'm going to try to post a few times today, updating as the day goes along. I welcome everyone else to join me in the comments section for each post. A few things to note as this day gets underway:


ESPN is out with their first Bubble Watch of the season. Usually this is a good read, but this first installment for the year is a disappointment. Not much creativity as Andy Glockner just found the RPI rankings and went down in order. The only place he went out on a real limb was to project St. Mary's as a lock for the Tournament, which seems a bit preposterous to me. I've talked about this already here. As I've said, St. Mary's is a great home team, and they tend to play far below those levels on the road. They've only had to deal with four road games so far, and the results have been decent but not great (losses to SIU and Texas, and close wins over San Diego State and Fresno State). I think we need to see how that team performs on the road at San Diego and Santa Clara before we start throwing the Gaels in the Tournament.

Early games to look for include Florida needing a win over Auburn if they want to establish themselves as an elite SEC team. A loss in this one would throw them back into the bubble mix with teams like Georgia and Alabama. A lot of games with bubble implications in the Big 12, with Texas Tech facing Oklahoma State, and Missouri hoping to take out Texas at home. And don't overlook Vandy at Kentucky, a game that could potentially knock the undefeated ranks down to four. Kentucky is not as bad as their record, and they should be fired up to avoid more embarrassment at Rupp Arena. The idea that some people are treating Vanderbilt as a mortal lock at Rupp Arena is humorous, to say the least, based on the history of these two programs. Don't discount the pride of a wounded giant.


I'll be back soon...