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 distinguish. 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: 17-10
• Conference Record:  8-6 (major conference)
• RPI: 56
• SOS: 36
• BPI: 63
• Sagarin: 48
• KenPom: 56
• Record vs. RPI top 50: 3-6
• Record vs. RPI top 100: 6-9
• Record vs. teams below top 100 in RPI: 10-1

Team B

• Record: 16-9
• Conference Record:  8-5 (major conference)
• RPI: 54
• SOS: 37
• BPI: 52
• Sagarin: 50
• KenPom: 60
• Record vs. RPI top 50: 3-5
• Record vs. RPI top 100: 4-9
• Record vs. teams below top 100 in RPI: 12-0

The two teams are revealed after the jump…

Team A is Villanova. The Wildcats are banking on wins over Syracuse and Louisville, who both sat in the top five when Villanova upset them a few weeks ago. There usually are not many teams on the bubble with two RPI top 10 wins, but Villanova sits squarely on it. The Wildcats have not proven that they can consistently beat good teams, with losses to Atlantic 10 bubble teams in La Salle and Temple also on the resume. Villanova was also swept by Providence, although the Friars are starting to make some noise against a couple of NCAA Tournament-quality teams. Three games against NCAA Tournament locks remain on the schedule — Marquette, at Pittsburgh, Georgetown. Winning at least one (plus a game against Seton Hall) will keep Villanova in the conversation, but winning two of those might seal the deal.

Allen Crabbe & Cal are Bubblicious Once Again (Ben Margot/AP)

Team B is California. Two weeks ago, nobody had the Golden Bears in the field.  In a 12-day span, though, California defeated the three best teams from the Pac 12 –Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA — to move into the conversation. The weakness to California’s profile shows after those three wins, because a win over Denver is the only other RPI top 100 victory on its resume. The Bears have not lost to any teams lower than #100 in the RPI, with the worst defeat coming to Harvard all the way back in December. Up next is a game at Oregon and later are meetings with Pac-12 bubble hopefuls Colorado and Stanford.  If the Bears can sweep the Ducks, who might be the Pac 12 regular season champions, it will be a large boost to their resume.

Daniel Evans (60 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 1:44 pm by Daniel Evans and is filed under blind resumes, bracketology, Regular Features. Tagged: bubble talk, california, villanova. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.