Bubble Teams Hoping Eastern Washington Pulls Off Upset against St. Mary's

There are several items I leave out of my resume, because, well, they won't help me get a job.  Similarly, St. Mary's upcoming game against Eastern Washington won't help them get selected.

St. Mary's recently added another game to their schedule after the WCC tournament versus Eastern Washington, who has an RPI of 234 and an SOS of 219. Eastern Washington didn't even qualify for the Big Sky Tournament.  Wow, what an addition to St. Mary's resume.

This game will do nothing for St. Mary's.  If anything, it could actually hurt them.

A big win will be expected. If St. Mary's does anything less than win big, this will hurt them.

Assuming they beat Gonzaga tonight, a sloppy win will hurt their seed.

If they lose to Gonzaga, a sloppy win will hurt their at-large chances.  A loss would be catastrophic.  A loss to a team with an RPI of 234, a team that didn't even qualify for their tournament, would all but ruin St. Mary's hopes.

Other bubble teams will crack a smile, though.

As bad as Creighton looked against Illinois State, a team in the RPI Top 50, this would be incomparable to a loss against Eastern Washington.

Surely, Patty Mills should thrive against Eastern Washington.  Hopefully, St. Mary's didn't add the game to show off their star guard to the selection committee, because, who knows, perhaps, someway, somehow, Patty Mills could get injured again.

Obviously, the best case scenario for St. Mary's is they destroy Eastern Washington and Patty Mills scores around 40 points.  However, even under the best case scenarios, this is something that would be expected of them.  Thus, once again, this game does nothing for St. Mary's.

This game can only hurt St. Mary's.

So, I ask you, St. Mary's, what were you thinking?