-Obviously the big talk this time of year is always about the “bubble.” The teams I take a liking to are the ones that play their way into the NCAA Tournament down the stretch. Ironically, Michigan State is a team I’ve picked on in the past, but they may be the closest thing to such a team at this moment. (Sorry, Alabama and Georgia, you’re still both under .500 in the SEC and have RPIs that are horribly off the mark. And Missouri…I’m not convinced yet.) Now, I’ll quickly say that I have no idea how much an 11-3 record in the Big 10 means this year; the mediocrity in this conference cannot be overstated (and it’s still not even as poor as the Pac-10). It’s quite possible that no Big 10 team deserves better than a 6 seed in the tourney, although we all know Roy Williams will shave his head before a Big 10-led committee would admit that. However, the Spartans have done what every bubble team should be asked to do: they’ve separated themselves from the pack by excelling in conference, not just going 8-8. They’ve done it by beating the teams they should, and while that doesn’t sound all that impressive, it’s something a lot of bubble teams could learn from. In fact, if they do win the regular season Big 10 title, even with the league’s weakness this year, that should be rewarded more by the selection committee for that than their non-conference schedule.

-It’s going to be fun to watch the Atlantic 10 play itself out these next few weeks, in particular its West Division. Xavier and George Washington are both coming on at the end of the year, and the Musketeers in particular have a good case for an NCAA bid with quite a few marquee wins. Their problem, though, is conference record: at 7-5 in the A-10, they’re only fourth in the West. Richmond is barely ahead of XU and has played a very tough schedule, but has lost almost all of its biggest games except for the Kansas win. Unfortunately, wins over the Jayhawks aren’t going to help the Spiders, Nevada and some others this year as much as they normally would, so it’s important to keep winning. GW is ahead of both Richmond and X in the A-10 West, and is 10-3 in the league. RPI is holding them down, though, but a win over UNC-Charlotte and a pretty decent season overall have to be looked at. Even Dayton shouldn’t feel too comfortable that it’s guaranteed an NCAA spot. Despite 20 wins and a share of the division lead with the Colonials, UD has mostly been beating teams it should and doesn’t have much for eye-opening wins. Normally, that’s usually good enough anyway for teams with the Flyers’ profile and it deserves to be again this year, but a few slip-ups and continued late-season surges from any or all of the other three could put their NCAA status in question. It could turn out that whoever wins the A-10 West gets a leg up on the others. The league should get anywhere from 2-4 teams in the Dance.

-I think Syracuse can feel very fortunate that its late-season Big East schedule hasn’t exactly been murder. Otherwise, the Orange would’ve been struggling mightily to make the NCAA Tournament. Even now they’re barely winning games they should have no trouble in.

-Virginia (of all teams) is actually playing pretty well right now. The Cavs have won three of four and beat Carolina and Georgia Tech at home and Clemson on the road, and played well for a half before falling apart some at Florida State. UVa is only half a game behind Maryland in the ACC and just one behind UNC and FSU. Just guessing it probably would not be a good omen for a seventh NCAA bid if the Wahoos pass some of those teams.

-I’ve harped on RPI often of late (and will continue to), but just saw this: even with a schedule that was average due to bigger name schools avoiding the heck out of them, Southern Illinois is 14th in the Wednesday rankings. The Salukis will be a very, very interesting case for the committee if they stay around that high, because that would seem to translate into a seed in the 4-6 range. SIU has zero RPI top 50 wins, but a healthy seven against 51-100 teams. To do some comparisons, that’s two more top 100 wins than Gonzaga, which is also an intriguing 7th in the rankings. It’s also just two less than Oklahoma State, and only one less than teams like Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona and Syracuse. Of course, the Salukis are also winning a much higher percentage of their games against such ranked teams than these other schools. In other words, SIU has as perfectly good a case for a 4 or 5 seed as a lot of schools around them who will probably receive higher seeds. Considering how much the deck is stacked against schools like Southern Illinois when it comes to the RPI, just being able to say they have a fair case is almost amazing.

-All that said, it also needs to be pointed out that SIU isn’t a great offensive team and most of their games are pretty close because of it. Moral being that people shouldn’t say they didn’t deserve a high seed if they lose early in the NCAAs because 1) the tournament is mostly about matchups, anyways and 2) there are plenty of other teams with just as small a margin for error. See any of those listed in the paragraph before this.

-Watched the second half of Stanford and UCLA on Friday, and it was a great game, Stanford proved it’s really good, the Bruins…ahh, who am I kidding, me and some buddies spent most of the second half yelling at the TV and wondering why the CBS station wasn’t showing Alabama-Mississippi State. (Full disclosure: one of the guys in our group is an MSU grad.) If local teams aren’t playing, how in the world do some of these stations choose what game to show? Not that there’s anything wrong with the Left Coast, but the SEC is certainly closer to Wisconsin than the Pac-10 is, and Bama-MSU sounded like it was a much more interesting game than Stanford-UCLA.

-Did see a graphic last week where Stanford, Mississippi State and St. Joseph’s combined have quite a few less national TV appearances this year than Duke. That’s just ridiculous.

-Great article by Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News this week, detailing a week of travel for Murray State of the Ohio Valley Conference. So much attention in college sports is given to bubbles, RPIs, Bowl Championships Series and coaches, but very little is given to the participants themselves and the lifestyles they live either inside or even outside their sport. As the story portrays, it can be a bit difficult, is definitely interesting, and isn’t necessarily horrible. It also shows that there’s no need for programs to be traveling first-class as much as they do. It’s excess, and besides, teams can learn a lot being cooped up on buses for four-hour trips.

-I can live with the NCAA infractions committee tacking on a postseason ban for this year for St. Bonaventure, but only if they start using this penalty consistently again. They did for awhile, but then went soft on Michigan this year, repealing a postseason ban for this year when the Wolverines hadn’t even been hit that hard to begin with. Also, though it put them on a lengthy probation, it didn’t nail Fresno State with a postseason ban for this year, either, when they certainly could have. St. Bonaventure worked as hard to clean up its mess as those schools did; in fact, with as many heads that rolled and even with an administrator committing suicide during this, one could have argued they merited some special treatment like Baylor has received this year. Too many more inconsistencies in the postseason ban penalty, though, is going to put the infractions committee right back in the position it was years ago, when the general consensus was they went after the little guys and didn’t have the guts to stick it to most of the biggies.

-The subject here is college basketball, but the rape scandals and all the hubbub about Colorado’s football team have to be addressed. I know, many get tired of hearing it, but this is just another example of why the big-time college sports system has to be reined in. What is in evidence at Colorado is the results of a trickle-down effect that comes about when college sports programs are treated like they’re nothing but moneymaking businesses. Athletic departments are only worried about making money, so they pay huge money to coaches that are supposed to help them to a payday. They’ll also fire those coaches if they don’t win 60% of their games, and this puts pressure on coaches. Between that pressure and the ego that comes from making millions of dollars and being able to do basically anything they want on the athletic department’s watch, coaches completely neglect having any educational effect on their players because they are too consumed with winning. That consumption leads to these young players being treated like royalty when they’re being recruited in high school, leading to an absurd feeling of entitlement for players. The result is you have players (student-athletes, if you will) making stupid decisions and having no consequences for them, unless the press gets a juicy scoop. And as sad as this cycle is, the saddest thing is really when you read message boards and listen to many fans talk. The message from them is clear: as long as their teams are winning, they could care less.

-And just after I’ve typed that paragraph, I see LSU has given football coach Nick Saban a contract paying him at least $2.3 million a year for seven years. Obviously, we aren’t getting even remotely closer to a solution.

-I love true point guards who look to pass way more often than they try to shoot. There aren’t many of these anymore, and that’s why Andres Rodriguez of American U. is one of the best point guards around, for my money. He only averages 9.6 points per game, but he also hands out 7.3 assists/game. Terrific at penetrating and handing off, and he can even-gulp-run the fast break. He’s sort of in the Orlando Smart/Mark Dickel mold of college point guards, and I’d be downright stoked if anyone can tell me where those two played and when. Particularly the first one-some should remember Dickel from a few years ago.

-Manhattan has looked awful impressive the last few times they’ve been on the ol’ minidish, and after seeing them in person against Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Saturday, I like them even better. In fact, in this opinion the Jaspers are filling a spot the Panthers did last year: no matter what the RPI says about them, they are playing so well right now that I think they are one of the 34 best at-large teams out there, period, regardless of power rating or who they’re playing right now. Luis Flores is great, as always, but his supporting cast has stepped up this year. In particular, former UMBC transfer Peter Mulligan has gotten more comfortable as the season goes along, and it’s no coincidence that as he has put up bigger numbers, the Jaspers have been playing better. It’s likely Manhattan won’t need an at-large spot because the MAAC gives the top seeds byes into the semifinals. The Horizon League does, too, and that’s good for UW-Milwaukee, which is sputtering right now but has already clinched the top seed in the HL.

-A little more on the Bracket Buster…

Watching on TV, was the atmosphere at the Charleston-Western Michigan game electric or what? That is one reason why this event is worth having, because there is no doubt these games are an event for some schools. Which game in that time slot do you think was more exciting, CoC-WMU or Illinois-Penn State?…Unless neither wins a game the rest of the season, Western Michigan and Kent State should both be in the NCAA Tournament, no matter what. If they aren’t, then the NIT could make a claim to the official national champion. They may not be the prettiest teams with how they win, but any tourney without those two isn’t a truly national tourney…Southern Illinois isn’t exactly fluidity in motion, either, but SIU is good. Oh, and ESPN (or some network) needs to get back to showing more late-night games. The atmosphere at those games is tremendous…Critical wins by Nevada and Rice, and again, don’t be misled by the close margins, Toledo and Louisiana-Lafayette aren’t exactly pushovers…I think Wichita State fans will confirm this: the Shockers will go as far in the postseason as point guard Jerome “Fridge” Holman takes them. When he plays well, the Shocks are awfully tough to beat, but he also can shoot them right out of ballgames…No conference dominated the Bracket Buster overall like last year, when the MVC went 4-0. This year, the MAC was 7-6, the MVC 6-4, and the Horizon League 3-5. Home teams were 14-9, but favored teams won about 75% of the games…Like WMU and Kent, East Tennessee State isn’t exactly the prettiest in how its winning, but the Buccaneers ought to be in the NCAAs. They probably won’t be unless they win the Southern Conference tourney, but at 24-4 now, they could really make the committee sweat if some ESPN announcers start trumpeting their case during Championship Week. My feeling is that I don’t care how few top 100 wins the Bucs have, that many wins and a winning streak like they’re on (16 in a row now) can’t be ignored.

-Found it funny reading a recent article where some Pac-10 assistant coaches seemed fairly confident of the chances of their league receiving a third bid to the NCAA Tournament. Sorry, guys, but after watching Oregon lose at home to Arizona and Cal get dumped soundly at UCLA, your league isn’t even close to receiving three bids unless someone other than Stanford or Arizona wins the Pac-10 tourney. As seriously as the Cardinal and Wildcats usually do (or more appropriately, don’t) take the Pac-10 tourney, though, there is a real chance for someone else to win the automatic bid.

-If you get the chance, you really should watch a St. John’s game before this season is over. Not because the Red Storm is any good, because as most know, they aren’t. Watch them, though, because events and defections have left a team playing an almost surreal style of basketball. The Johnnies have no depth, so they play a zone so loose that it would drive an elementary school coach mad. Their offense is pretty much Darryll Hill shoot, everyone else go to the glass. They feature a 7-foot-3 center, Curtis Johnson, who in the past four games has averaged 26 minutes a game; before that, he had played 48 minutes the entire season. Several starters are playing 40 minutes a game, while the rest of the starters are guys who didn’t average more than 10 minutes a game before all the suspensions and defections at SJU. Walk-ons are playing significant minutes. Given their circumstances, the Johnnies’ win over Georgetown last week was about as delightful a result as there has been this year. (Georgetown fans would certainly disagree) Despite everything that has happened, what’s left of the team is playing hard and has taken on a lovable quality.

It’s party time. Conference tournaments start already this week, believe it or not. The Ohio Valley Conference will be playing its quarterfinal games Tuesday night at the campuses of higher seeds. It would be a treat to see Austin Peay and Murray State play their way into a second meeting this year, this time in the OVC title game.

N.C. State at Georgia Tech. For some reason, I keep wanting to think Tech is the second-best team in the ACC. Then I see their conference record, and I wonder why.

Kent State at Buffalo. This is a dangerous game for the Golden Flashes. Buffalo has made a move up the MAC standings this year and is a good team.

Richmond at Rhode Island. Spiders need this game a lot. It looks like the Rams still haven’t recovered from their home loss to Xavier yet.

Maine at Northeastern. Battle for third in the America East. That might not sound important, but with Vermont losing Taylor Coppenrath, it’s huge.

Oral Roberts at Centenary. The Mid-Continent is still tight, with these two among four teams within half a game of first place going into this final weekend.

Wright State at Illinois-Chicago. The Flames may finally be living up to their hype, having ripped off eight in a row. They’re tied with the Raiders and UW-Green Bay for second in the Horizon.

St. Francis (N.Y.) at Monmouth. Nothing less than first place in the Northeast Conference is on the line.

Bucknell at Holy Cross. How about the Bison, who are starting all freshmen and sophomores and have played their way into third in the Patriot League, half a game behind Lehigh? It’s shaping up to be a good race between Bucknell, Lafayette and Lehigh, three old East Coast Conference rivals.

Utah State at Cal-Irvine. Despite the Aggies’ relatively easy win earlier this year, we still like this series for its recent history of ridiculously close games.

St. Joseph’s at Rhode Island. The Hawks’ best chance at a loss the rest of the regular season, as you’ve been reminded daily for about the last 45 days.

Richmond at George Washington. Don’t let the power rating disparity fool you; this one is huge for both teams. GW is finishing fast, and that ought to count for something.

Drexel at Delaware. Going back (again) to the old and beloved East Coast Conference, these two have always had spirited games.

East Tennessee State at College of Charleston. As the Cougars showed against Western Michigan, they will be tough for the Buccaneers. Hello, 25-4 record, though, if ETSU wins.

Marquette at Alabama-Birmingham. Despite their cushy power rating, I’m not sure the Blazers should feel too comfortable that they’re in the NCAAs yet. This team could have snub written all over it, so UAB better keep winning winnable games like this and might want to steal a game from someone yet.

Arkansas-Little Rock at Louisiana-Lafayette. If anyone can challenge the Ragin’ Cajuns in the Sun Belt, maybe it’s the Trojans. UALR has played well of late, winning six of eight and with its two losses by a combined six points.

Western Michigan at Toledo. Another very tough game that will get the Broncos less respect from the NCAA committee than it deserves.

Wright State at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Went to this game last year. Never would’ve thought for a second that they might be playing for a share of second in the Horizon League this year.

Texas-Pan American at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Two nice little independent programs in southern Texas. The Broncs and Islanders have some nice wins this year, with Murray State, Texas A&M, Baylor, Air Force and Arkansas State among their scalps.

Texas-El Paso at SMU, Nevada at Fresno State. Critical road games for a pair of teams sitting on the fence as far as the NCAAs go.

Rice at Hawaii. What applies for UTEP and Nevada also goes for the Owls. The Rainbows have probably killed their at-large chances, but that certainly doesn’t mean they can’t win the WAC tourney.

Southern Illinois at Northern Iowa. This is a great test for the postseason for the Egyptian Dogs. UNI has already beaten Iowa, Wichita State and Creighton at the UNI Dome.

Fairleigh Dickinson at St. Francis (N.Y.). If the Terriers lose to Monmouth on Friday, this one becomes a game for the second seed in the NEC tourney. An SFC win over the Hawks could mean this is for the top seed.

Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis at Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne. IUPUI vs. IPFW-The Official Rivalry of this column. Forget Duke-North Carolina, Packers-Bears, or anything else.

Utah at Brigham Young. Suddenly, BYU is looking a lot better for an NCAA bid than it did a month ago. Cougars are playing much better now than they were in January.

Northwestern State at Stephen F. Austin. Any conference wanting to brag about its parity can talk to the Southland Conference and will promptly be told to shut up. Going into this week, second through eighth in the SLC standings are separated by one game in the loss column.

Pittsburgh at Providence. Could PC be the best team in the Big East? The answer is no, not after losing to Virginia Tech, but they could beat Pitt.