The quest to beat Joe Lunardi, pickin' the NCAA bracket (after games of 3/14)

So, having heard all the guys at ESPN talk about the greatness of Joe Lunardi, I wanted to see, putting up 10 days of hard work into it (starting last Friday, March 7), to see if I could be close, or even better. So what I'm going to do is list the 65 teams in an outline for a basic list, then go in ridiculous detail underneath in matchup form to explain why. Hopefully, it'll be informative, if not put people to sleep. I also will try to update each day, though the info for the teams won't change much day-to-day unless moved or played. My basic info of use is RPI, Strength of schedule, and record vs RPI top 100, as well as generic record/conference type/conference record setup. Since I didn't feel like spending money on ESPN's InsideRPI, I used the daily RPI from Ken Pomeroy's website at www.kenpom.com/rpi.

Going by seed in East, Midwest, South, West order (official conference champs in bold, estimated champs in all CAPS).

Most team changes from yesterday came via one-bid favorites that lost (including UC-Santa Barbara, Nevada, Alabama St, and both Sam Houston St and Stephen F Austin. Crazy. Ohio St is knocked out by St. Joe’s, who shocks Xavier. The winner of St Joe’s/Temple gets that last in spot, though they would be automatic.  Villanova is the next knocked out if any strange occurrences happen, like if Kent St loses to Akron, or Minnesota wins the Big Ten, or Virginia Tech beats UNC. Lots of games left, still, with a day and a half to go. SEC tournament issue may cause a pickle for a team like Georgia who is still around and may be a co-champion (if they go that route) and could be up for a potential at-large and take a spot that way.

Through games of March 14:

1. NORTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE, MEMPHIS, UCLA (in caps)

2. Kansas, Duke, TEXAS, GEORGETOWN

3. Xavier, Louisville, Stanford, WISCONSIN

4. Mich St (+1), Vanderbilt, UConn, Marquette

5. Notre Dame, Drake, Butler, Indiana (-1)

6. Pitt (+1), Wash St, BYU (in caps), Clemson

7. Purdue (-1), Gonzaga, Texas A&M, West Virginia

8. Miami-FL, KENT ST, Texas A&M (+2), UNLV (no caps)

9. USC (no caps), Kansas St (-1), Arkansas, Mississippi St

10. St. Mary’s (-1), Kentucky (+1), Illinois St, S Alabama

11. Oregon (+1), Baylor, UMass, Arizona

12. Davidson, Villanova, ST JOSEPH’S (new), W Kentucky

13. Siena (+1), George Mason, BOISE ST (new), Oral Roberts

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