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Tommy White (Brian Westerholt/Four Seam Images)
With less than three weeks until Selection Monday, the race for the NCAA Tournament is reaching its home stretch.
As Selection Monday approaches, I’ll be tracking the development of the Field of 64 and, most importantly, what every team needs to do to secure an at-large bid.
For these purposes, I’ll sort teams that are in at-large contention into three camps:
1) Locks. Reserved for teams that could lose out and still make the NCAA Tournament. That’s a bit nit-picky, but when I say lock, I mean it.
2) Should be in. Generally, a team that would be solidly in if the field was selected today.
3) Work to do. Nothing is guaranteed for these teams.
At this stage, the difference between “should be in” and “work to do” is somewhat nebulous. By the end of the month, it will matter much more.
In the conference records listed, I include any win against a conference team, whether it counts toward the conference standings or not because that is how the information is presented to the selection committee. So, for instance, Oklahoma State gets credit for a conference win for its mid-week victory against Oklahoma. Overall records do not include any wins against teams outside of Division I, as those do not appear in the information presented to the selection committee and do not factor into RPI’s calculation.
Buckle up and get ready for an exciting few weeks as we push ever closer on the Road to Omaha.
ACC
Things look pretty much the same as they did last week in the ACC, owing in part to so many teams being on finals break last week. Louisville helped its cause significantly, however, with a sweep at Boston College. The threshold for a lock in the ACC is still 15 conference wins.
Locks: Clemson, North Carolina
Should be in: Duke, Florida State, NC State, Virginia, Wake Forest
Work to do: Georgia Tech, Louisville, Virginia Tech
Duke (32-14, 14-10; RPI: 22; SOS: 46): I could lock up Duke, but I’m going to hold to the threshold of 15 ACC wins. The Blue Devils don’t need to sweat this, however. They can be fully focused on the hosting race.
Florida State (35-10, 14-9; RPI: 7; SOS: 24): I could lock Florida State up, but I’m going to hold to the threshold of 15 ACC wins. The Seminoles are more on the track to being a top-eight seed than worrying about the bubble, however.
Georgia Tech (28-17, 12-12; RPI: 46; SOS: 55): The Yellow…