NCAA TOURNAMENT BREAKDOWN
Check out Berry Tramel's projections for the 68-team field
The Big 12's dream of getting eight of its 10 teams into the NCAA Tournament seems to be on life support. The Texas Longhorns are 16-16. Would the NCAA basketball committee really sign off on a .500 team getting one of the 36 at-large bids to the 68-team field? Seems like a shark you don't want to jump. The NCAA puts victories and defeats into four quadrants. The Longhorns are 5-10 in Quadrant 1 games, which is actually impressive – those are home games against teams ranked 1-30 through in the NCAA's NET rankings, neutral-site games against teams 1-50 and road games against teams 1-75. The NET rankings use a formula that the NCAA says factors in “game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin and the quality of wins and losses.” Texas' problem is that the Longhorns are 7-1 in Quadrant 3 and Quadrant 4 games. Quad 3 is home games against teams ranked 76-160, neutralsite games against teams ranked 101-200 and road games against teams ranked 136-240. Quad 4 is home games against teams ranked 161 or worse, neutral-site games against teams 201 or worse and road games against teams 241 or worse. That means the `Horns are 9-15 in games you could classify as competitive matchups. Oklahoma, a hot-button team in NCAA Tournament projections because of the Sooners' 7-11 Big 12 record, is 10-12 in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games. I don't think the committee will take Texas. There already is rumbling about too much favoritism for the power conferences. That hasn't stopped the committee from in the past loading up the NCAA Tournament with the big names. But taking a .500 team? That seems a port you'd best pass on the cruise. And UT is getting no help in conference tournaments. Rhode Island's upset of Virginia Commonwealth in the Atlantic-10 quarterfinals Friday means the A-10 will get an extra team in the NCAA Tournament. And Florida's upset of LSU in the SEC quarterfinals means the Gators likely have moved ahead of Texas on the NCAA bubble. “Regardless of our record, every game that we've played, it was there for us to win, and we've been in every game,” said Texas senior Dylan Osetkowski. “It's a tough place leaving it up to the committee now. But I think we've definitely done enough for them to see that we are a NCAA Tournament team.” Sorry. That doesn't seem likely.