Question for the Bubble Watchers?
This seems really weird, but St. Mary's has a game after their conference tournament. It seems like they're considered a lock now despite losing their conference tournament, but what if they lose to Weber State? Could that knock them off? Weber seems to be pretty crappy with an above 100 RPI, could even winning this game hurt their resume?
Also, has a team ever scheduled a game after their conference tournament before this?
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/schedule/_/id/2608/sain…
I had never heard of such a thing. Thought it must be a mistake on the schedules, but...
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2011/02/sain…
St Marys actually did the same thing last year. I believe their coach mentioned something about staying relevant in the tournament committee's mind through the latter part of Championship Week.
EDIT
It was two years ago they did this; they beat Eastern Wa., but took their 26-6 record to the NIT anyways.
I have full confidence in our guys to beat Illinois on a neutral court. I support St. Mary's effort to keep some rifraff out of the tournament.
That's interesting, I wondered if a team from a small conference could scrimmage against a team from another small conference to keep from getting rusty. Like the winner of the Big South and the winner of the Atlantic Sun. They both finished their tourney's on Saturday and will probably be a little rusty by next Thursday or Friday. I had never heard of it happening so I figured it must be against the rules, but if you can play another game after your tournament apparently it's not.
I've seen the playing after the league tourney before. It happens semi-regularily in this particular league as I've seen the Zags do it once or twice over the years as well.
As for their Tourney Bid, I think the Gaels are in. For now. But this will be a long week for them. And, they cant have too many bubble teams excell this week.
But what if Colorado, Baylor get to the Big 12 semis, Michigan gets to the Big 10 semis, UW-Milwaukeee wins tonight and Alabama's D bends and breaks the crappy SEC teams in their bracket and get to their league finals.
None of those outcomes would be outlandish. And room would need to be made in the fiinal field. If even half of those happen, it might be bye bye St. Mary's
Should be a fun week to track
I knew they did it two years ago, but a big reason for that was that their star Patty Mills had just been injured so they scheduled the extra game to try to show that they were still worthy without him.
The game this year seems like a no-win situation. In my opinion, if they get kept out of the tournament, it will be their strength of schedule that does it (currently at 122). That game will almost certainly make their SOS worse.
I think the Gaels will get left out. They have a ton of wins over a bunch of nobodies, including two over a couple of schools l've never heard of (Albertson College and Point Loma), and one pathetically terrible loss to San Diego, winners of all of six games this season (and an RPI north of 300).
IMO, St. Mary's is going to need the committee to really value that early season win over St. John's, this before St. John's became St. John's again.
I may be a bit bearish because, frankly, a spot that St. Mary's gets might be a spot that Michigan does not get.
...would get rid of the tourney, extend the regular season one week each at beginning and end, and have a true double round robin. Never gonna happen, though. ($$$$$)