Gonzaga is bucking the trend among the mid-major ranks as teams try to establish themselves in the minds of the NCAA Tournament committee. Then again, that should be no surprise. The full rankings from 1 to THE GRAMBLING.
A laundry list of problems doomed Saint Mary's, as all the emotion and effort they could muster wasn't enough to overcome the match-up problems and size deficiencies that were present on paper.
Could the soft bubble for this season's NCAA Tournament favor the mid-major teams sitting on it with chances for at-large tickets? History tells us "no," but when you compare the teams by the eye test, you might get a different answer.
Gonzaga earned a couple of first place votes in the AP Poll, and Memphis is back among the ranked squads. But where are the rest of the mid-majors? They are all caught in a giant jumble just outside the top 25.
BYU is definitely not an NCAA worthy team this year, and their performance against San Francisco, on the heels of an equally bunk outing against San Diego, is mounting proof.
What games on the Bracket Buster slate didn't make the television cut? Here is the full list of matchups that were left off the World Wide Leader. Does it seem to anyone else like a "could have been" list?
In its final season, the Bracket Busters lineup will highlight some of the best that the mid-major ranks have to offer. The premier slot went to Creighton against St. Mary's but who else earned a night on television to state its case?
There might only be two mid-majors with little numbers next to their names, but the number of teams getting votes from outside the top conferences continues to grow. Where to St. Mary's, Akron and Belmont stand now?
Mid-major teams might have had a little trouble gaining a foothold in the computer rankings earlier this season. But now we count seven of the Top 25 in the MRI among our ranks. What has changed?
Kelly Olynyk proved to be too much for the San Diego Toreros to handle over the course of a full game, as a single play proved to be their eventual undoing down the stretch.
