NCAA Tournament: The REAL Field of 65

I spend a lot of time on CollegeHoops.net posting Bracketology updates, projecting what the committee would do.. but really, the committee knows no more than I (or you) does.. and I am not persuaded by power & prestige like the committee is. So I present my REAL field of 65, seeded according to how good these teams truly are in MY opinion, and not the committee's.

(# in parentheses represents current seed in latest Bracketology update)

Differences: You'll notice at the outset I have Duke & UCONN as #1s. Duke, with the #2 RPI, a solid non-conference season, and no bad losses (at BC by 6 points the worst) is better than they're given credit for. Louisville is of course the Big East leader, but UCONN's overall season is more impressive to me, and I didn't forget Louisville's early season losses as much as the mainstream media. The big general difference in the ordering is that a) I'm not quite as caught up in the results of the past week's games, and b) I'm not a believer in teams that make their mark by getting a dozen bites at the apple. Wisconsin, sure, they have 4 top 50 wins.. in 14 tries. That's horrendous. You put teams like UNLV, Creighton, etc in BCS leagues and they'd win a handful of games against better teams as well. With that said, the 2 teams I don't have in my "Real" field are Wisconsin (no business being in the tourney), and Maryland. Maryland's another bite at the apple team, 4-7 vs Top 50, with the latest one coming against a Wake Forest team playing for nothing. The Virginia loss, the home loss to BC, the Morgan St loss, the 30 point loss to Georgetown, and the 40 point loss to Duke all suggest one thing.. Maryland just isn't that great.

ONE  

TWO

THREE

Villanova (3)

Wake Forest (3)

Syracuse (4)

Kansas (3)

FOUR

Missouri* (3)

Xavier (5)

Gonzaga*** (4)

Florida St (4)

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

Arizona State (6)

Dayton (9)

EIGHT

LSU (6)

NINE

TEN

California (9)

ELEVEN

TWELVE

Saint Mary's (NA)

UNLV (NA)

Western Kentucky***  (12)

Northern Iowa*** (12)

THIRTEEN

North Dakota St*** (13)

American*** (13)

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

Cornell*** (15)

ETSU***  (15)

Morgan State*** (15)

Robert Morris*** (14)

SIXTEEN + ONE

Radford***(16)

Morehead St*** (16)

CS Northridge* (16)

Chattanooga*** / Alabama St* (16)

* = Conference Leader

*** = Automatic Bid

Bold = Tournament Bid

League Leaders/Winners (31)

- Leaders are merely the first place team in the standings as of today. Ties are given to the higher RPI team.

America East - Binghamton***

A-10 - Temple***

ACC - Duke

Atlantic Sun - ETSU***

Big 12 - Missouri

Big East - Louisville

Big Sky - Portland St***

Big South - Radford***

Big Ten - Michigan State

Big West - CS Northridge

CAA - VCU***

Conference USA - Memphis***

Horizon - Cleveland St***

Ivy - Cornell***

MAAC - Siena***

MAC - Akron***

MEAC - Morgan State***

MVC - Northern Iowa***

MWC - Utah***

Northeast - Robert Morris***

Ohio Valley - Morehead State***

Pac-10 - USC***

Patriot - American***

SEC - Tennessee

Southern - Chattanooga***

Southland - Stephen F. Austin

SWAC - Alabama St

Summit - North Dakota St***

Sun Belt - Western Kentucky***

WAC - Utah St

WCC - Gonzaga***

*** = Locked Up Automatic Bid

Last In:  Creighton, Saint Mary's, Minnesota, UNLV

Last Out:  Maryland (11), Arizona, Wisconsin (10), Providence