Washington

After a rather routine Friday the hope was that Saturday would provide even more surprises. But few people had in mind what the Northern Iowa Panthers did in Oklahoma City when it came to the shocker of the day. The Missouri Valley champions got off to a quick start early and did not let up until the game was decided, knocking off the top overall seed 69-67 to move on to the Sweet 16 next week in St. Louis. Ali Farokhmanesh led the way with 16 points, knocking down what has to be the shot of the Tournament thus far to give Northern Iowa a 66-62 lead with 34 seconds remaining.

Minnesota over Xavier

Old Dominion over Notre Dame

San Diego St over Tennessee

Washington over Marquette

Washington Huskies

Pacific-10 Conference (24-9, 11-7)

 

It's the worry of nearly every team on the bubble this time of the year: the bid thief. The team that had little or no chance of getting into the NCAA Tournament makes a run in its conference tournament, grabbing the automatic bid and possibly snatching a chair at the table from another team in college basketball's answer to "musical chairs". Houston (Conference USA) and New Mexico State (WAC) were the two teams to do that on Saturday, and the question now is which at-large candidates will be headed to the NIT as a result of these outcomes. 

The Bracketology field is based on how the tourney looks "as of today." The field below is not based on who I think deserves to be in, but a prediction of what the committee would do as things stand. The next Bracketology update will be on Saturday. Look below for commentary on today's changes.

 

Arizona

Arizona St

California

Washington

Other (UCLA, Oregon, Oregon St, Stanford, Washington St)

RPI #'s updated as of 3/07/10, 2:00 pm.

 

RPI #'s updated as of 3/01/10, 4:00 pm.

 

Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest - 16.0, 11.0, 1.5)

Luke Babbitt (Nevada - 21.3, 9.7, 1.9)

Jordan Crawford (Xavier - 19.7, 4.8, 2.8)

Sylven Landesburg (Virginia - 18.1, 5.2, 2.9)

Greg Monroe (Georgetown - 15.4, 9.5, 3.6)

Isaiah Thomas (Washington - 17.4, 4.4, 2.6)

Klay Thompson (Washington St - 21.1, 4.8, 2.5)

Willie Warren (Oklahoma - 16.2, 3.5, 4.2)

Elliot Williams (Memphis 19.2, 4.3, 3.9)

Other (Davis, Ebanks, English, Fortson, Green, Rosario, Thompkins, Walker, White)

How many bids will come out of the Pac-10 this year? There's a distinct possibility of the conference receiving just one bid to the NCAA Tournament given the unimpressive resumes of its primary contenders. And that essentially means the entire league with ten teams separated by just two games in the standings. However, the winner of Thursday's matchup between California and Washington in Berkeley will go a long way towards deciding who's got the inside track for the automatic bid.