With six days of hoops left until Selection Sunday, we still have a lot of work to do. Thirteen more teams were eliminated on Monday night, and that leaves a grand total of 211 “eligible” schools remaining on the Circle of March. Eight of those teams are now locked into next week’s field of 68, with Delaware, Wofford and Manhattan last night joining the previous five automatic entrants. Penn and Princeton finish their regular seasons this evening and four other championship games will be held in the Horizon, NEC, Summit and WCC Tournaments, but we won’t really start to see a lot of progress (also known as white space) in the Circle until the Thursday and subsequent editions.

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.10.14)

• Maryland-Eastern Shore
• Ball State
• Kent State
• William & Mary
• Iona
• Denver
• Central Michigan
• Bowling Green
• South Carolina State
• Saint Mary’s
• Western Carolina
• South Dakota State
• San Francisco

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our Pac-12 Tournament edition, RTC microwriter Andrew Murawa (@amurawa) joins us to discuss what he expects to see this week in Sin City. And he talks some basketball too. The Big East, AAC, SEC and Big 12 Tournament pods were released on Monday, and the Big Ten preview came out earlier today. The ACC will drop a bit later this afternoon, with the A-10 and MW coming tomorrow. Enjoy!

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record.

• 0:00-5:16 – With or Without Brandon Ashley – Arizona is the Class of the Pac-12
• 5:16-6:57 – Disappointing Teams
• 6:57-9:02 – Stanford Vindicates Drew
• 9:02-13:02 – What the Pac-12 Bubble Teams Need to Do in Vegas
• 13:02-13:58 – Teams With the Most to Gain
• 13:58-19:02 – Non-Arizona Options to Win
• 19:02-25:03 – Pac-12 Superlatives
• 25:03- Previewing Drew’s Days in Vegas

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our Big Ten Tournament edition, RTC microwriter Deepak Jayanti (@dee_b1g) joins us to discuss one of the most interesting conference tourneys heading into Indianapolis. The Big East, AAC, SEC and Big 12 Tournament pods were released on Monday, and the Pac-12 and ACC will be out a bit later today with the others dropping on Wednesday. Enjoy!

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record.

• 0:00-2:52 – Michigan’s Surprise Big Ten Title
• 2:52-9:47 – Which Team Is the Best and Which Team Has the Most Potential
• 9:47-13:00 – Big Disappointments in the Big Ten
• 13:00-14:52 – Preseason Predictions Review
• 14:52-17:49 – All-Big Ten and POY Discussion
• 17:49-22:09 – Non-Michigan Choices to Win the Big Ten Tournament
• 22:09-23:57 – Bubble Team Requirements to Make the NCAA Tournament
• 23:57-25:37 – Teams With a Lot to Gain
• 25:37-27:03 – Can Michigan State’s Vets Get It Together?

Nick Fasulo is an RTC correspondent who writes the column College Basketball By the Tweets, a look at the world of college hoops through the prism of everyone’s favorite social media platform. You can find him on Twitter @nickfasuloSBN.

Mr. Buffett may lose points for looking like a fair weather fan, counting his money in Omaha and only coming out to play when the Bluejays are on the verge of making a deep NCAA Tournament run, but any billionaire willing to be photographed with stickers on his face is cool in my book.

It's @WarrenBuffett supporting Creighton today! pic.twitter.com/LprnkeLFUJ

— Rob Anderson (@_robanderson) March 8, 2014

Joel Embiid Out For Big 12 Tournament

Like Syracuse in 2012 (Fab Melo) and Cincinnati in 2000 (Kenyon Martin), Final Four contender Kansas has lost an important big man at the worst possible time. Joel Embiid, ruled out of the Big 12 Tournament with his NCAA Tournament status unknown because of a stress fracture in his back, has offered up a handful of angles as to what it all means for Kansas. To the hot sports takes!

“@GoodmanESPN: Kansas says Joel Embiid out for Big 12 tourney, "longshot" for first weekend of NCAA tourney.” pic.twitter.com/sxZ3JaRkXb

— Calvin McDermott (@calmcd1697) March 11, 2014

This news will deter people from picking Kansas, makes bracket pools harder. KU wasn't winning the title with or without Embiid

— Brian Otskey (@botskey) March 11, 2014

Maybe Joel Embiid's value will plummet to a late first rounder!?!?!!? A man can dream, right?

— Spurs Talk. (@SpursTalk1) March 11, 2014

Kansas isn't Final Four team without Embiid. Jayhawks in trouble without him. Need him to return but why would a likely top-3 pick risk it?

— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) March 11, 2014

To state the obvious: College basketball being robbed of a fledgling, amazing talent like Joel Embiid during its biggest month is awful.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 11, 2014

NBA Scout on Embiid: "He is top 3 if he doesn't play."

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 11, 2014

#cheerfortheears Reaches Its Appropriate Climax

Read the rest of this entry »

1. When Kansas lost at Oklahoma State on March 1 we were less concerned with the loss than with Joel Embiid and his apparent back injury. Initial reports out of Lawrence were that Embiid would miss the last two regular season games, but was expected to be back in time for the Big 12 Tournament. Instead, Embiid met with an orthopedic spine specialist in Los Angeles yesterday for further evaluation of his ongoing back problems. Yesterday evening Bill Self announced that Embiid, who reportedly has a spinal stress fracture (no idea on what level or why this required a trip to Los Angeles to figure it out or confirm it), would sit out the Big 12 Tournament and likely the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. This is obviously a huge blow for both the Jayhawks and Embiid. As with all back injuries we will need to wait and see how Embiid responds to conservative therapy before making any further judgments on his progress.
2. It is not very often that we discuss international players on this site (the last time that we remember doing it regularly a New York Times reporter was chasing down leads in Turkey), but it is not often that one of the top 10 international recruits in a class decides to college basketball. That is what Dusan Ristic, a 7′ tall Serbian ranked #8 overall for international recruits in his age group, is doing by committing to Arizona and will be part of the incoming class this fall. We won’t pretend to know anything about Ristic, but he seems like an interesting project for Sean Miller. In terms of his commitment, the most interesting thing about it is that Ristic opted to leave the European professional league to play college basketball because he felt that it was better for the development of his game.
3. It seems a little later than usual, but Seth Davis put out his annual All-Glue Team yesterday. We do not have any issues with the selections, but it seems like Seth is going with more “mainstream” players–particularly Patric Young–than he has in previous years. Perhaps it is a version of recency bias that is making us value current players more in terms of their contributions, but it seems like the current All-Glue Team has more borderline stars on it than previous versions did.
4. One more spot opened up on the coaching carousel as Appalachian State fired Jason Capel (or will not renew his contract). Capel, who was the youngest coach in Division I when he was hired at the age of 30, went 53-70 in four seasons and was only over .500 in his first year. Capel’s overall performance before this year (9-21) has not been that bad, but his tenure was largely unremarkable with the exception of his ongoing refusal to let Devonte Graham, an Appalachian State signee, out of his National Letter of Intent. Given Capel’s pedigree (playing at North Carolina and being the son of former coach Jeff II and brother of current Duke assistant Jeff III) we would expect to see him on someone’s staff relatively soon.
5. With Selection Sunday rapidly approaching many fans are debating the impact of various injuries and how it should affect seeding. With that in mind, Dan Hanner’s injury splits makes for some compelling reading. As Hanner notes these all should be viewed with the caveat that these numbers are influenced by the opposition, but they are worth checking out. The Selection Committee might not take these numbers into account, but you should consider them when filling out your bracket in about a week.

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our Big 12 Tournament edition, RTC microwriter Brian Goodman (@bsgoodman) joins us to discuss one of the deepest tourney fields in college basketball heading into Kansas City. The Big East, AAC and SEC Tournament pods have already released, and the remainder will come out a bit later this week.

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record.

• 0:00-7:53 – Death, Taxes and Kansas Winning the Big 12 Regular Season Title
• 7:53-11:22 – Biggest Surprise in the Big 12
• 11:22-14:34 – Reactions to the Conference Awards
• 14:34-17:01 – Kansas a Less Than Prohibitive Favorite in Kansas City
• 17:01-19:04 – Non-Kansas Picks to Win the Tournament
• 19:04-23:10 – What The Big 12 Tournament Means for NCAA Tournament
• 23:10-25:25 – Anything Can Happen at the Sprint Center

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our AAC Tournament edition, RTC microwriter Mike Lemaire (@mike_lemaire) joins us to discuss the haves and have-nots in this unbelievably stratified league. The Big East and SEC Tournament pods have already released; the Big 12 Tournament edition will release a bit later today; and the remainder will come a bit later this week. So keep an eye out.

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record.

• 0:00-4:37 – Cincinnati and Louisville Tied at the Top
• 4:37-5:54 – Disappointing Teams
• 5:54-8:58 – Evaluating First Year of the American
• 8:58-13:19 – Great POY Race and Other First Teamers
• 13:19-15:13 – Will Lack of Size Affect Teams in the NCAA Tournament?
• 15:13-17:58 – Preseason Predictions Reviewed and Celebrating SMU
• 17:58-18:44 – Which Top Team is the Favorite?
• 18:44-20:47 – Team With the Most to Gain
• 20:47-23:08 – Bottom Five Team With Best Chance to Win a Game
• 23:08-25:25 – Dream Championship Game
• 25:25-27:50 – What Will the Crowd Be Like for Louisville and Memphis?

Day seven of Championship Fortnight is in the books, and with it the first week of the Circle of March. Sunday’s slate was a bit lighter than Saturday, but we still eliminated 12 more teams to reach a total of 224 eligible schools remaining. Of course, at this time next week, we’ll be down to the magic number of 68, which means there’s still a lot of work to be done over the next 168 hours. There will only be 13 games on tap tonight, but they’re all elimination games with the MAC and MEAC getting under way, the Summit and WCC playing their semifinal rounds, and the CAA, MAAC and SoCon crowning champions. Keep in mind that to preserve the integrity of the regular season, we’re not yet eliminating schools from the CoM that still have games to play (i.e., Penn and Princeton).

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.09.14)

• Canisius
• Vermont
• Towson
• Davidson
• South Dakota
• Quinnipiac
• Hartford
• Georgia Southern
• Western Illinois

Daniel Evans (@bracketexpert) is Rush the Court’s resident bracketologist. He will update his brackets at least twice a week through the rest of the regular season here at RTC, but his updated brackets can be viewed daily at Bracketology Expert. As we approach March Madness, he’ll also provide occasional blind resumes. Evans has been ranked by the Bracket Matrix as the nation’s 11th-best bracketologist out of hundreds of entries.

It’s the best week of the year as we all count down the hours to Selection Sunday. It may take every minute to figure out this field, which continues to produce loops with some of the stunning losses we’ve seen over the last few weeks. On Sunday alone, two potential No. 1 seeds lost  following a Saturday when Kansas and Arizona lost. One quick note for this bracket: Wisconsin’s loss to Nebraska on Sunday night moved the Badgers off of the No. 1 seed line. Villanova is now the final No. 1 seed and I believe firmly that if the bracket was released today, the Wildcats would join Florida, Wichita State and Arizona on the top line. For the first time in over a month of bracketing, I feel like those four teams are relatively clear-cut choices on the top line, but over the next six days that is certain to change. The Gators and Shockers are locked in as No. 1s but Arizona and Villanova could still make things interesting in conference tournament play. Meanwhile, the Badgers loss was Nebraska’s gain. The Cornhuskers jumped up to a No. 10 seed in this bracket and will likely end up in the No. 10-12 range on Selection Sunday.

The NCAA Tournament Picture (full bracket below)

• NCAA Tournament Locks (36): Arizona, Florida, Wichita State, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Kansas, Duke, Villanova, Virginia, Creighton, Michigan, San Diego State, Iowa State, Michigan State, Louisville, North Carolina, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, UCLA, Texas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Kansas State, VCU, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Iowa, Ohio State, George Washington, Memphis, Arizona State, New Mexico, Oregon, Baylor, SMU, Oklahoma State
• NCAA Tournament Auto-Bids (5): Harvard (Ivy), Eastern Kentucky (OVC), Wichita State (MVC), Mercer (A-Sun), Coastal Carolina (Big South)

The Bubble Picture

• Projected Bubble Spots Left: 10
• Bubble In (10): Colorado, Stanford, Nebraska, Saint Joseph’s, Dayton, Xavier, California, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Tennessee
• Bubble Out: BYU, Arkansas, Georgetown, Providence, Green Bay, Florida State, St. John’s, Belmont, Missouri, Indiana, West Virginia

Potential Bid Thieves Left (70)

• American (5): Houston, Rutgers, UCF, Temple, South Florida
• ACC (10): Clemson, N. C. State, Florida State, Maryland, Miami (FL), Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Boston College, Virginia Tech
• A-10 (9): Dayton, St. Joseph’s, Richmond, La Salle, St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island, Duquesne, George Mason, Fordham
• Big East (8): St. John’s, Xavier, Marquette, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Butler, DePaul, Providence
• Big 12 (3): West Virginia, Texas Tech, TCU
• Big Ten (6): Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Penn State, Northwestern, Purdue
• Mountain West (9): UNLV, Nevada, Boise State, Wyoming, Fresno State, Utah State, Colorado State, Air Force, San Jose State
• Pac-12 (5): Utah, Washington, Oregon State, Washington State, USC
• SEC (12): Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina, Mississippi State
• WCC (3): BYU, San Francisco, St. Mary’s

The NIT Picture

• There will be more to come on the NIT bracketology front as this week progresses, so stay tuned. I’ll likely also try to throw together CBI and CIT fields.
• Clinched NIT Bids (5): Belmont (OVC), Florida Gulf Coast (A-Sun), Davidson (SoCon), Vermont (America East), Green Bay (Horizon)

The Projected NCAA Tournament Field (March 10, 2014 at 10:13 AM CT)

Read the rest of this entry »

The regular season is over, Championship Week is here, and it’s now or never for all of the teams that have talked a rather big game but haven’t necessarily backed it up with their play on the court. To that end, we’re going to be rolling out nine RTC Podblasts this week, one to preview each of the seven power conference tournaments as well as the Atlantic 10 and the Mountain West (to scroll through all that have been released, click here). In this, our SEC Tournament edition, RTC microwriter Brian Joyce (@bjoyce_hoops) joins us to discuss Florida and the 13 dwarves heading into Atlanta this week. If you’re interested, the Big East Tournament podcast released this morning, while the Big 12 and AAC Tournament editions follow a bit later today. Join us!

Make sure to add the RTC Podcast to your iTunes lineup so that you’ll automatically upload it on your listening device after we record

• 0:00-8:54 – Florida’s Perfect SEC Season
• 8:54-14:59 – Kentucky’s No-So-Perfect Season
• 14:59-18:41 – Prediction Reflections
• 18:41-23:22 – All Conference and SEC POY Discussion
• 23:22-26:41 – Non-Florida Picks for the SEC Tournament
• 26:41-29:09 – Which Bubble Team Needs a Win the Most?
• 29:09-30:25 – One Thing to Watch For