Four weeks from Selection Sunday

Four weeks from selection Sunday.

Where are we?

Everyone seems to be on board with Arizona, Kansas, and Florida, especially after last night's win in Lexington.  Less so Syracuse, despite their undefeated record.

Supposedly it's either the Big Ten or the Big 12 (remember, of course, the now standard joke that the Big 10 has 12 teams and the Big 12 10 -- academics, you know) as the best conference in the country, which explains why Wisconsin beat Michigan in Ann Arbor and Nebraska beat Michigan State in Lansing (or it was a bad day in Michigan) won today.

But it's time to start thinking brackets.

First rule of brackets: don't pay so much attention to rounds one and two.

Yeah, everyone is into picking that surprise winner, but most brackets -- ESPN, Yahoo, CBSsports -- give only one point for those, then progressively more (2, 4, 8, 16, 32), so picking the final game is more important than picking those others.  Of course, to win a bracket pool, you need to do more than just pick one team through to the finals -- remember two years ago when everyone had Kentucky and they won?

I'd say right now that I'd like Syracuse, Arizona, and Florida.  I don't believe in Kansas.  Right now I'd go Duke -- but with both Michigan teams in waiting.  Let's see who plays well these last weeks, who wins the Big 10 title, then the tournament.

The Big 12?  Let's see if Kansas really gets through it all as their top team.  Oklahoma State, the early season favorite to unseat them, has come apart.  Texas looks like their biggest nemesis, though Iowa State, Baylor and Oklahoma have good teams.  In fact, right now, the only team you want to play in the Big 12 is TCU.

Duke is the #2 out of the once powerful ACC -- with the number one and four Big East teams 'cuse and Pitt.  UVa is a great story, but unless they win the tournament, I won't have them winning more than 2 games.

The former Big East?  Cincinnati might be a sleeper; Louisville, the defending champion (thank you, thank you, for winning me my brackets last year), is #13 in the country but no one is acting like they are serious contenders.

Let's not forget Kentucky.

And Wichita State went to the Final Four and is undefeated.  Don't count them out.

We "talk" more in the coming weeks on match ups, etc.

But now, for two weeks, I have to start looking at horses.  The Gotham is in 13 days and I have no idea who will run and be favorite (I need a horse named after a singing group like Hansen two years ago), or even, given this winter, what kind of day it will be.  Won't keep me from trying to find a way to cash tickets, just sayin'.

After yesterday's Purdue demolition of archrival IU, I can only finish (for Dbrolaw, Hoosier lover) "Boiler Up." #

Big Ten Bubble Watch: Dbrolaw watching Hoosiers with Hope

The Super Bowl is over.  Let me say -- figured defense would beat offense (again!) -- and it did.  Peyton looked bad.  The Seattle defense looked bad (and in a good way).  And Russell Wilson was magic.

Now it's time to think of March Madness.

The Big Ten is, by everyone's reckoning, the best conference in the country.  Both Bracket Brad & Joe Lunardi have 6 B10 teams making the tournament.

But IU's not one of them, yet.

Bracket Brad has them on the bubble looking in.

They are 4-5 in the Big 10, 14-8 overall.  Their RPI is 64th & they have quality wins over Wisconsin and Michigan (both at home).  For the second half of the B10 season, they have a series of winnable games, with Penn St, Northwestern, Nebraska & Purdue on the schedule.  With another upset -- say at Minnesota, or at home v. Ohio St -- they'd be 9-9 in the toughest conference in the country.  They'd need an opening round win in the B10 tourney in Indy, practically home court advantage.

I wish my Boilers were in that kind of shape. I was at yesterday's loss in State College, a debacle of bad play.  Too many turnovers; no one to stretch the defense (2-7 from trey?); sloppy switching defense, leading to lots of layups.  Ugly.

They needed that game.  Now 3-6 in the B10, they had an outside chance if they could beat the same teams on IU's list.  But having lost to Northwestern, though in OT, and now Penn State, it looks like they belong in something like the 10th slot in the B10.

So, we'll watch.  And hope for some quality wins.

My current F4:  Michigan St (assuming they are healthy), Arizona (assuming they are the West #1), Duke and Florida.