5:38 pm We've got twenty minutes before the announcing begins, and a lot of time to fill, as the Big Ten championship was dull (shocker!) and ended early. Greg Gumbel is hitting the coaches' interviews, with Bill Self and Jamie Dixon.
5:44 pm Jamie Dixon is less interesting than a sandwich. I know this, because given the choice between listening to him or making a sandwich, I chose the sandwich.
5:45 pm The roommate is watching a cooking movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Harvey Dent, and some moppet. This is what being a Texas Tech fan does to you.
5:47 pm Hey Michigan fans! Shut up, so I can hear boring John Beilein platitudes. Who the hell brings fans to a selection show?
5:49 pm Beilein: "There was no loading up in the Big Ten." No, there was no waking up in the Big Ten. Subtle difference.
5:52 pm Everyone's talking about the "series of miscues" that ended the SEC championship. I thought is was more "the refs completely taking over to the game doing everything but shooting the baskets themselves," but your wording might be more polite.
5:55 pm Calapri insists that Conference USA is really good, and Memphis is just really, really, really good. Yeah John, Tulsa has 24 wins, but look at that schedule.
5:59 pm Just for Men: Because your prepubescent kids really want you to get laid, and we believe bad hair dye will help.
6:00 pm Louisville gets the overall top seed by actually winning their conference tournament.
6:02 pm Pitt (East), UNC (South) and UConn (West) are the other three top seeds in that order. A week ago I didn't think the Big East could get three, but that was before the conference meltdowns. East and South are one side of the Final Four, West and Midwest the other this year.
6:04 pm I miss Billy Packer. Especialy since without him, CBS is arguing that Ty Lawson kept UNC from the overall #1, but UConn kept a top seed despite losing Jerome Dyson.
6:14 pm And the Midwest Regional is in. The ACC and Big East both lead off with two, and the regional as a whole doesn't look too difficult. It looks like the committee is weighting conference tournament performance pretty highly this year.
6:16 pm A Wake-Louisville Elite Eight matchup could go a long way towards deciding which conference is better.
6:21 pm An even easier regional, just begging for a UConn-Memphis matchup. The ACC is now limited to seven teams max, and it's pretty likely both UNC and Duke will start the tournament in Greensboro. That Maryland-Cal game looks to be nice revenge from football season though, doesn't it?
6:29 pm Florida State and UCLA get had location draws, shipped all the way across the country. FSU in Boise looks particularly difficult. And how much are we looking forward to a Rick Barnes / Duke reunion in the second round?
6:31 pm And wasn't Tennessee the number one seed in the SEC West? They puled a nine - just how bad is that conference, and is that just the death knoll for Jeff Lebo's Auburn Tigers?
6:38 pm Well, I think UNC gets the toughest draw. And don't tell me the committee doesn't like setting up historical rematches with UNC-Illinois. (It won't happen, though. They won't get back WKU yet alone Gonzaga.) Oklahoma is a much tougher two seed than Duke and Syracuse is strong. My question is, who's more incompetent right now, Clemson or Michigan?
6:41 pm And now, a moment for our Wolfpack bretheren: Look, Herb Sendek is on the other end of the bracket from UNC! How's that coaching change going?
6:44 pm Clark Kellog thinks Gonzaga will give UNC fits. Of course, he also likes the Clemson-Michigan matchup, which I think will be a complete dog.
6:45 pm Over to ESPN, where they're talking about snubs. I think with the ACC and the Big East both set at seven, there was no justification to putting an eighth Big Ten team in with Penn State. Mississippi State probably knocked out Auburn. Virginia tech could have made a case as well, but the same applies with the Big East.
6:48 pm Seth Davis likes Wake Forest. Greg Gumbel likes Memphis and one seeds. Seth Davis thinks Clemson will take out Oklahoma (!). He hasn't seen a Clemson game in awhile, apparently.
6:50 pm While I hate the "Best 64" formulation like Jay Bilas does, his calling it the best 34 is also misleading. Good teams do get automatic bids. Looking at the lowest teams to get in Arizona and Wisconsin, it's obviously the best 50 teams and 15 also-rans for flavor. I'm perfectly happy with that.
6:51 pm Irony of ironies: this is probably the most Billy Packer-approved bracket, heavy on the major teams. CBS, of course, is still stuck on the appropriate number of mid-majors even with Packer gone.
6:55 pm Jim Nantz points out that both Mississippi State and Purdue head west for Thursday games after tough Sunday conference championships, and gets the response that the committee did look at past years' performances in that situation, and saw no statistical significance. Good call, committee.
6:57 pm Seth Davis is anti-expansion. Seth Davis is smart. Back to ESPN.
7:00 pm ESPN is wondering why the Big East only got seven teams. ESPN doesn't read John Gasaway. ESPN is stupid.
7:01 pm In review, I'd have liked to see Wisconsin and Arizona tossed out in favor of two of the three low-RPI mid-majors. But I'm not throwing myself against the barricades for Saint Mary's.
7:03 pm Jay Bilas is calling out Saint Mary's for dodging big teams. Vitale is pro-Mary. St. Mary's lost a majority of their games to teams in Pomeroy's Top 100, so Bilas might have a point. Bilas and Vitale are really getting into it, and Vitale is still sucking up to Duke.
7:08 pm St. Mary's is tearing ESPN apart.
7:09 pm Arizona beat Gonzaga? That bodes better for UNC's bracket, at least.
7:13 pm ESPN just suggested a BCS system, presumably for deciding the other 34 entrants. Yeah, because the BCS system is known for it's argument-free conclusions.
7:14 pm Bob Knight wants a 128-team tournament. Bob Knight is a menace to himself and others with those sorts of ideas.
7:17 pm Knight also called for gender-separating the conference committees. (Only women on the women's selection, men's on the men's.) ESPN just ignores that and rolls right along. And you know, I don't have any more energy to listen to bracket talk just yet. Bye, ESPN.