General

TSB’s Selection Sunday Liveblog

Mar 15, 2009, 9:55 PM UTC

The moment of truth is finally upon us and there isn’t much suspense left unless you root for one of about a dozen teams that have a legit shot at stealing one of the precious few at-large spots up for grabs. And by previous few, I mean four. The rest of the at-large bids seem to be locked up. The teams vying for those final spots include, but may not be limited to, San Diego State, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Creighton, Penn State, St. Mary’s, Arizona, Providence, Virginia Tech, Auburn and Florida. â†µâ†µSo, over the next hour there will be some rejoicing and even more unhappiness as more teams are left out than get in. Follow along with all of it here, as we liveblog the selection show and provide instant, and extremely in-depth, analysis (as always). Use the comments section to let us know how wrong we are. â†µ

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â†µâ†µNo. 1 Seeds: Your number one overall seed is Louisville. Seems like the obvious choice given they won the regular season Big East title and the conference tournament. And we have our first surprise (sort of): UConn gets a 1-seed over Memphis, giving the Big East three of the four top spots. So much for my planned “Is Memphis is the weakest 1-see of all time?” argument.â†µ

â†µâ†µMidwest: There goes one of the bubble spots to Arizona, which gets in as a 12-seed. They’ll play No. 5 Utah. The committee did them a double-favor by letting them in and giving them such a favorable match-up. This is also one strike for Joe Lunardi, who had Arizona out. Bracketology is clearly not an exact science.â†µ

â†µâ†µAs far as my Final Four pick from this region, You have to like L’ville, although I also kind of like Kansas (3-seed) and West Virginia as a sleeper at the 6-spot. â†µ

â†µâ†µAward for best fans from the Midwest region goes to the Bison faithful:â†µ

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â†µWest: There goes another bubble spot, this one to Maryland, which earns a 10-seed. Although the Terps seemed to be a lock after beating Wake in the ACC tourney. Elsewhere in this region, UConn, Memphis and Missouri are the top three seeds, in that order. I'm not crazy about any of those teams. This could be a region that No. 4 Washington has a legit shot at taking. â†µ

â†µâ†µEast: We’ve got two Big Ten bubble teams in here with Wisconsin and Minnesota officially making this the most boring region in the bracket. This also likely means that either Michigan or Penn State is going to be left out. Elsewhere, it’s hard to pick against No. 1 Pitt in this region, but I also like No. 5 Florida State a lot. VCU, who has been anointed as this year’s Mason/Davidson, gets UCLA in the first round, a very winnable game for the Rams. â†µ

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â†µâ†µSouth: Penn State, St. Mary’s and San Diego State all see their bubbles burt. Michigan is the final bubble team to get the nod, and they’ll take on 7-seed Clemson. The top two seeds here are UNC and Oklahoma -- it’ll be awfully tricky to pick between those two for the Final Four. Gonzaga, at a four, is also a tempting upset pick to advance. â†µ

â†µâ†µOther Thoughts: â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- We knew this was going to be the case, but the lack of mid-majors really stands out this year. CBS was nice enough to break it down in graph form:â†µ

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â†µâ†µ-- The Big Ten gets the same amount of bids -- seven -- as the ACC and Big East. This is surprising, but I still don’t understand it. I’d put in Virginia Tech, Miami and Providence over about half of the Big Ten teams that made it in. If I’m not making myself clear: I think the Big Ten is awful. â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- The toughest team for me to pick one way or the other is Memphis. It’s so hard to say how good they really are based on the competition they played. They really need to swtich to a real conference. â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- Of all the one seeds, UNC really has the most difficult road to the Final Four. Oklahoma, Syracuse and Gonzaga are quite possibly the best 2, 3 and 4-seeds in the entire bracket and they’re all in UNC’s region. On the flip side, UConn has the easiest region, which seems unjust given that they’re the worst of the ones. â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- With more parity in college hoops this year, I thought it would beâ†µeasy not to go chalk, but I’m struggling to pick against any of theâ†µone-seeds. Non-one seeds that I like: Washington (4), Oklahoma (2),â†µDuke (2), Florida St. (5), Wake (4), Gonzaga (4), Syracuse (3) ... andâ†µthat’s about it. â†µ

â†µâ†µ-- Re: my last thought. I take back the bit about liking Duke. There’s simply no way to compete with The Great Unibrow of Binghamton:â†µ

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