Bay Area Billiken

All of the Sweet 16 teams are from the Football Power 4. Breakdown: SEC 7, Big Ten 4, Big 12 4, ACC 1. I’ll be curious to see the West Region attendance figures, with no teams from the West, none from the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones in San Francisco.

Arizona 87 Oregon 83 in Seattle, 29 points for #1 Caleb Love.

No less than 3 NIT games will be played today/tonight in the Bay Area, to wit: Loyola Chicago at USF; UAB at Santa Clara; Kent State at Stanford. Former Billikens are involved: Brad Ezewiro at UAB, Cian Medley at Kent State.

My brackets survived Florida beating UConn and Dan Hurley. St. Mary's plays Alabama this afternoon (3 p.m. Pacific time) in a battle of radically contrasting styles. Go Gaels!

Called it! That was the easiest sure bet "upset" pick ever.

Mizzou -6 vs. Drake, o133 per CBS Sports, Mizzou -6.5, o132.5 per ESPN. With the 4:35 pm Pacific (6:35 Central) start time, there's still time to get to Reno or Stateline, NV ... Drake is such a consensus pick, 42% of brackets the last I heard the other day, would a Drake win even be considered an upset? Technically, yes it would, but in reality?

The good Billikens win tonight across the border in Arkansas.

ESPN says ARST -5.5, Total 153.5. CBS Sports has ARST - 5, Total 154. SLU coming out flat Friday in the A10 Quarterfinals vs. Loyola evidently is not inspiring the bookmakers. If the old NIT NYC based Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA) was still in charge, this game would be in St. Louis, not Jonesboro, Arkansas. As is, let’s go down there and win it.

https://x.com/hoopsweiss/status/1901860470815879675?s=46&t=jikm5nKg-NlIUjy2c9C9zw That didn’t take long.

The NCAA's Team Sheets now contain the following metrics: Predictive- NET, Pomeroy, ESPN BPI, Torvik; Results Based- SOR, KPI, WAB. VCU's metrics: NET 31, Pomeroy 30, ESPN BPI 33, Torvik 29; SOR 48, KPI 36, WAB 51. ESPN Analytics reportedly gives VCU an 87% chance of getting IN. ESPN gives VCU a 71.7% win probability today vs. George Mason, has the line at VCU -8.5, Total 128.5. Torvik has the score at VCU 66, George Mason 61, VCU -5.4, 73% probability. If VCU wins today, the A10 is likely one bid (Juan Bid). If George Mason wins today, the A10 is likely 2 bids, although if the NCAA Committee needs an excuse to exclude VCU, the SOR and WAB could be cited, as well as VCU playing only 3 games, going 2-1 vs. Quad 1. Of course, the latter is a crutch. You can't play them if they won't play you. With Richmond, VA (home of VCU) being only 109 miles away from Washington, DC, VCU has a large contingent of loud and vocal fans in DC. However, that should be at least partly countered today by George Mason, which is in Fairfax, across the Potomac River, a mere 20.5 mile drive away.

St. Joe's probably has better talent with its 3 potential NBA players, and Dayton has a long history of failure in the A10 Tourney, has not won the A10 Tourney since SLU joined the league in '05-'06, has never won it away from its home court.

I'd prefer to get VCU out of there, although some think VCU has to reach (and lose) the A10 Championship Game to get an NCAA At Large bid.

After opening at Even, ESPN has LUC -1.5, o141.5. ESPN Matchup Predictor has LUC 53.9%. NET: SLU 99, LUC 109. I think SLU is the better team, but SLU had to play a tough game yesterday, while Loyola was enjoying the double bye. I'm hoping that won't make a significant difference.

After opening at SLU -2.5, the ESPN line has moved to SLU -4.5, total staying at 141.5. ESPN Analytics Matchup Predictor has SLU at 59.7% chance of winning.

VCU and Dayton are chronic foul committers and get away with far too much of it.

That is about as good a scenario as possible. Avoiding VCU and Dayton until the Final is the best case scenario.

The #6 Seed has won 3 of the last 5 A10 Tourneys, including SLU in '19, Richmond in '22, and Duquesne last season in '24. There is hope; there is always hope.

While precedent exists to support the #6, the #4 is probably better for this SLU team with its limited depth.

When is last call at the Last Chance Saloon?

Yes.

How about Wichita State? Would the Shockers move from the regressing and depleted American?

Bradley and Drake, old rivals of SLU in the MVC, would both be better choices than High Point. Both have basketball traditions. They are the #2 and #1 seeds respectively in the upcoming MVC Arch Madness. Both are ahead of Belmont. I understand the desire to get into the Nashville market, but do you want the market with a lesser program or the better basketball programs? I am concerned re the A10's penchant for Southern expansion. How about some Midwestern expansion instead? Two of the most well funded A10 programs, with the two biggest arenas, are Dayton and SLU, both in the Midwest, assuming Ohio is considered the Midwest, but irrespective both west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Mississippi River watershed.

Does SLU have any say in this?

Schertz called his first 2nd Half Timeout with 5:05 left in the game, 14:55 into the 2nd Half, at a point at which Dayton had outscored SLU by 20 points, 41-21 in the 2nd Half to take a 69-62 lead.