Joe Lunardi said 17 teams are fighting for the last 8 slots in the tournament. I wonder if Bradley is one of the 17? Aside from that woeful 2-8 mark in top 50 games, Bradley's numbers are comparable if not better than many of the bubble teams, yet no one is talking up the Braves at all....sigh. Our numbers are favorable to teams like West Virginia, Syracuse, Purdue, and Virginia, and it looks like 3 of those 4 will probably make it on the big board Sunday.
Maybe we can be this year's Air Force and give Billy and Jim something to grouse about on Sunday. One positive for Bradley is leaving a good impression in its last game. We lost by 2 to the 11th ranked team in the country in a game which we could have won outright if not forced an overtime session. Compare that to Missouri State sleepwalking through a 17 point semi-final loss to Creighton, or Old Dominion getting belted by George Mason by 16 in the CAA semi's. Sure, ODU was riding a 12-game winning streak prior to that loss, but considering how well they were playing going into that game, I think anyone on the committee would pause and say, "what happened there?".
During Monday's CAA final in Richmond, Jimmy Dykes said the selection committee will use a lot of statistical information to compare the last remaining teams to each other. Despite that, he felt it would be difficult for any committee member that participated in the process last year to forget that the CAA had one of its members get to the Final 4, or that the MVC had 2 of its 4 teams make the Sweet 16. Just a little more food for thought.