Wrapping up Saturday

Temple 69, Saint Joseph's 64
An amazing coaching job by ex-Penn coach Fran Dunphy, as Temple finishes the season strong and earns a Tournament bid in what was almost surely a must-win game for them. With this win, they move from the NIT into something like a #9-11 seed. Saint Joseph's meanwhile, is going to have to hope that those two late-season wins over Xavier put them into the Tournament. The overall resume is still a bit dicey: RPI of 41st, Sagarin of 51st, 8-8 against the RPI Top 100, but four losses against teams outside the RPI Top 130. The 10-6 Atlantic Ten record is good enough, and they do have the two wins over Xavier and the sweep of UMass. All in all, they're clearly one of the true bubble teams at the moment. They're going to have to sweat out the next eight hours or so. Meanwhile, this result actually might be the blow that knocks out another A-10 team, UMass. I've gone through all of the holes on their resume before, and they were already in a precarious state before this game. Now they find themselves almost clearly fourth in the A-10 pecking order, and is the Selection Committee really going to take four from that conference? I know that they always keep the party line that they don't care about things like how many teams get out of a conference, but there's no way that it doesn't have at least a subconscious effect on the committee members. The Minutemen are in big trouble now.

Arkansas 92, #4 Tennessee 91
A heck of a run for a Razorbacks team that pulled off two nice upsets in order to earn the right to be the favorites in the SEC Championship Game. If the Razorbacks weren't a lock for the Tournament before this game, they obviously are now. Not only that, but a win of the SEC Tournament will shoot them up the Selection Committee's S-curve. I wouldn't be shocked to see them all the way in the #6-7 seeding range. As for Tennessee, this loss probably cripples their #1 seed hopes. I think that the winner of Kansas/Texas will probably get than final #1 seed. But falling all the way back to a #2 seed isn't the end of the world. They are a very good team in all aspects of the game, and they're going to be a very tough out for anybody.

Pittsburgh 74, #9 Georgetown 65
Pitt continues its annual domination of the Big East Tournament, tearing through powerhouses Louisville, Marquette and now G-town to take the crown. When they entered the Big East Tournament, they were looking at a seed in the high-single digits, something like a #6-9 seed. But now, they've shot way up the chart. The Selection Committee loves to reward teams that take their conference tournaments. A recent example of this was Iowa shooting all the way up to a #3 seed after taking the Big Ten Tournament in 2006. So, it's not out of the question for Pitt to slide up that high as well, although they're probably in for something more in the range of a #5 seed. Still, a very nice run for a team that has now earned itself a much easier route to the Sweet Sixteen.