Bracket Me
It's right about time to start figuring out who's in, who's out, and who's close as conference play grinds toward conference tournaments.
Stewart Mandel's bracket on si.com here. A Mandel note:
"It was a rough week for last season's national-title game participants, Florida and Ohio State, which went a combined 1-3. Already fighting for their tourney lives, the Gators (19-7) did themselves no favors by falling at home to LSU (9-15), while the Buckeyes (17-9) laid an egg at 8-17 Michigan. As a result, both teams fell out of my projected field. If the same holds true on Selection Sunday, it will mark the first time since 1980 -- the year after Magic-Bird for Michigan State and Indiana State -- that both the defending champion and runner-up failed to earn bids to the following year's tournament."
The Bubble Watch feature at espn.com is a must this time of year. Their note on Kentucky (they're not dead yet) is of interest:
"Kentucky [13-10 (7-3), RPI: 73, SOS: 16] The Wildcats were awful at Vandy, but it's just one (really ugly) loss. They rebounded to take out LSU on the road and now have three straight winnable home games before a trip to Knoxville. Incredibly, if the Cats enter that game at 10-3, they don't have to win it to maintain a credible chance to making it as an at-large, despite a bad nonconference slate that includes crippling home losses to Gardner-Webb and San Diego."
16-11 regular season and two wins in the SEC tournament to bring them to 18-12 enough to slide them into the field? Maybe. It's a damn site closer than a lot of people thought they would be at the end of December.
Gary Parrish's best guess at sportsline.com here. Check back probably tomorrow for an update, that is dated from Feb. 13th.
Fraank Burlison of scouts.com with material running at foxsports.com has his take too.