Pittsburgh

Duke

Kansas

Ohio State

Pittsburgh

Yes, Notre Dame (#8 RPI)

Yes, Pittsburgh (#10 RPI)

Yes, Notre Dame & Pittsburgh

Yes, UCONN or Louisville (whoever wins title)

No

The latest 2011 NCAA Tournament Bracketology field as things stand after Thursday's action. The field below is not who I think deserves to be in, but simply a prediction of what the committee would do as things stand.

 

With more games come more opportunities to see who actually wants to go to the NCAA Tournament. Now that the Big 12 (for the most part) has sorted itself out it's time for conferences such as the ACC, Big Ten, Mountain West, Pac-10 and SEC to begin their tournaments in earnest (the Mountain West and Pac-10 had games yesterday but none had an impact on the field of 68).

One game to keep an eye on tips off late in Greensboro with banged-up Virginia Tech taking on Georgia Tech in the final game of the day.

By this time next Sunday there will be more than 20 teams guaranteed inclusion in the 2011 NCAA Tournament and the first three tickets were punched on Saturday. UNC Asheville (Big South), Belmont (Atlantic Sun) and Morehead State (Ohio Valley) all won their conference tournament finals while Princeton (Ivy) missed out on a chance to join the fun with their loss at Harvard. Now the Tigers need to beat rival Penn at the Palestra to forge a tie atop the standings, forcing a one-game playoff with Harvard for the Ancient Eight's automatic bid.

One of the more important games of the day doesn't involve a ranked team, but because of the inconsistent nature of both teams they find themselves in need of a victory. Michigan State (14-11, 6-7) hosts Illinois (17-9, 7-6) in an important contest both teams need in regards to their NCAA Tournament hopes. Tom Izzo's had to deal with maddening inconsistency from some of the players expected to be leaders, not to mention the dismissal of backup point guard Korie Lucious that's sapped them of their depth at the point.

Many fans and pundits alike felt that Ohio State's trip to Madison would be the point where they'd suffer their first loss of the season. But after a first half that didn't do much to separate either team those prospects didn't look good as Thad Matta's group went on a 23-6 run to push their lead out to 15 points with 13:21 left in the game. Thankfully for the Badgers Jordan Taylor and company had other ideas, answering with a 30-8 run of their own and eventually going on to win 71-67 at the Kohl Center.

Missouri played one of their best offensive halves of the season in the first half on Monday night, making 57.7% of their shots and scoring 42 points. But they were down four at the break thanks to the combination of suspect defense and superior execution by the Kansas Jayhawks. And as the Tigers slid closer to their season average in regards to field goal percentage Kansas got even better offensively, making 66.7% of their shots in the second half to win going away 103-86.

"Rivalry Week" tips off on Monday night, featuring an important Big 12 battle between Missouri (18-5, 4-4) and border rival Kansas (22-1, 7-1). While the Jayhawks have lost just one game the entire season (Texas at home), Mike Anderson's Tigers are stuck in the middle of the Big 12 standings (3rd-10th are separated by one game in the loss column) and could use a win like this one to further boost their standing in regards to NCAA Tournament seeding.

The return of the "burn" paid dividends for Mike Brey's Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Monday night, with a style of play that got them to the NCAA Tournament making the difference in a 56-51 win at #2 Pittsburgh. Ben Hansbrough led the Irish with 19 points, 13 of which came in the final nine minutes of the game, while Carleton Scott added 16 and Scott Martin 10.