NCAA Conference Tournaments and Brackets

Well I didn't fare too well in the darkhorse picks.

I did avoid in most cases picking the top 3-4 teams in a league. In the larger conferences I avoided the top 5-6 teams.

So Temple was the only team that came through.
Minnesota had an impressive run.
Syracuse had no magic this year.
None from Texas Tech either.
Georgia Tech pulled off a couple victories before being knocked off by Duke.
Houston was a bust as was UAB.
I was close with Ole Miss (given that the winner of that game went on the win the tourney)
The only glory I had was a pre conference prediction for San Diego. I thought they were a solid team when they came into Rupp and beat Kentucky early in the season.

What to make of the 65 teams in and the few bubble teams who are out?
No Florida or Ohio State- think there is parity in college bball these days. The two teams from last years championship game are headed to the NIT. Ohio State had a pretty good case against Oregon and Arizona.
Ohio State beats Syracuse and Florida in the non conference and finishes with 10 wins in the Big Ten- sitting in 5th place. They lose to North Carolina, Butler, Texas A&M, and Tennesse in non-conference. That a pretty tough schedule.

Oregon loses to St Mary's, Nebraska, and Oakland and they beat Kansas St (11 seed) and Utah.
They have a 4 game losing streak and a 3 game losing streak and finish 18-13- 9-9 in Pac 10.
Quite the resume- wait a minute, it's a terrible resume.

Arizona finishes the year 4-10- on fire. They finish Pac 10 play at 9-11- 19-14 overall.
They lose to Virginia, Kansas and Memphis (very respectable) They beat Texas A&M, UNLV, Houston and Illinois. Two on the 4 were not in the bracket last time I checked. They get beat by Arizona St twice (even though St didn't deserve a berth either)

Let's look at another team that could have gotten the nod over the Pac 10 schools mentioned.
UMASS- goes on the road early to beat Boston College and Syracuse. They beat Houston at home. They lose at Vandy. Know anyone who has won at Vandy lately.
They finish third in their conference and end the year with a 6-1 streak. Not all too impressive but a better resume than Oregon and Arizona in my opinion.

Syracuse finished 9-9 in the best conference this year. (coming from an SEC fan) They played a very good schedule in non conference.
Siena (W against Tourney team)
Saint Josephs (W against Tourney team)
Ohio State
Washington
UMASS
Virginia
Cornell (W against Tourney team)
Rhode Island
Tulane
It's not power house city but it's not a bunch of cupcakes either. 10-3 non conference and 9-9 in the Big East with wins against Georgetown, Nova and Marquette.
To me it's not even close when comparing with the Pac 10 schools who got the nod.

Last but not least. Mississippi:
Did they deserve a berth- I don't think so with a losing record in the SEC west (during a down year) They have a much better case than Arizona with it's losing record in the Pac 10 and it's one less win and three more losses.
Mississippi beats some good teams in non conference:

Mississippi Valley State (NCAA bound)
South Alabama (NCAA bound)
New Mexico (on the bubble or considered in the tourney by Joe Lunardi until this weekend)
Winthrop (NCAA bound)
Depaul
Clemson (NCAA bound)
Wins against Miss St, Vandy, Arkansas and Florida in SEC play.
The highest RPI of the teams left out of the tourney I believe.

So why the credence to the pack 10 this year? Is Stanford really that great. Was USC deserving on their top 20 ranking with 10 losses? I believe UCLA is the real deal but is Washington State going to make it past their first round game?