As we’re now fewer than four weeks from Selection Sunday, it’s always fun to start speculating about resumes of teams on the bubble. On some of the days when Daniel Evans (@bracketexpert) isn’t providing us with his updated Bubble Watch (Sunday nights and Thursday afternoons) or his weekly Bracketology (Fridays), he’ll give us an interesting comparison or two of teams that he finds difficult to compare. Today, he offers up a couple of bubble teams that have made considerable news in the past week as to their placement (in or out). Here are their blind resumes:
Team A
- Record: 18-7
- Conference Record: 8-4 (major conference)
- RPI: 77
- SOS: 181
- BPI: 45
- Sagarin: 35
- KenPom: 19
- Record vs. RPI top 50: 3-1
- Record vs. RPI top 100: 6-1
- Record vs. teams below top 100 in RPI: 12-6
Team B
- Record: 17-8
- Conference Record: 8-4 (major conference)
- RPI: 44
- SOS: 50
- BPI: 39
- Sagarin: 20
- KenPom: 29
- Record vs. RPI top 50: 0-4
- Record vs. RPI top 100: 5-8
- Record vs. teams below top 100 in RPI: 12-0
The two teams are revealed after the jump…
Team A is Virginia. The Cavaliers have six good wins, which is the strength of their argument to get into the NCAA Tournament. Teams with wins over Wisconsin, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Florida State, and Maryland typically do not have to claw their way into the field. Of course, most teams with those six wins do not usually have losses to George Mason, Wake Forest, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Delaware, and Old Dominion. The CAA is as bad as it has been in years in 2012-13, but if Virginia was in the league the Cavaliers would not be in first place considering it is 0-3 against conference. The Cavaliers’ RPI continues to rise, but it needs to move up quite a bit more for a bid to become likely. Games against Miami (FL) and Duke are ahead, giving Virginia a chance to prove it belongs in the field.
Team B is Kentucky. Obviously, this profile is a lot different now that Nerlens Noel is out for the season, but UK’s profile has been weak all along. The best argument Kentucky has is its decent RPI, because there are not any top 50 wins on this resume. It has been my belief all season that the eye test would have to separate the Wildcats from the rest of the bubble pack due to the SEC’s lack of quality teams this year. It is well-documented that Kentucky was blown out by Tennessee in its first game without Noel on the floor, causing many in the bracketology community to overreact to the loss and yank Kentucky out of their hypothetical fields. One game does not make (or break) a season. Let’s see how the ‘Cats play on Saturday against Missouri. A win in that game would be a better win than any Kentucky had with or without Noel in the lineup.