Fox Bracketology was last updated on Tue, Feb 2nd, prior to win at UOP. Santa Clara is listed as the final team in and playing in Dayton.
Last 4 in…..Cal, Miami, UCLA, SCU
Bears and Broncos are in the East region with winner playing UCF.
If we do get in, I hope we can bypass the play-in game in Dayton.
OSU over Maryland 82-62, Tily point leader 19, rb leader 3
Lunardi’s Friday update is out:
Shows Santa Clara in the field as an 11 seed (in the Greenville, SC bracket), though that’s attributable to his methodology that assumes the 1st place team in the conference gets the auto qualifier. It’s not clear to me if he would project SCU in otherwise. I think his last bracket from earlier this week had the Broncos in First Four Out.
St. Mary’s is listed as a 10 seed (in St. Louis bracket).
Gonzaga listed as a 3 seed in the Portland bracket, up against a 14-seeded Portland St.
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I think this article may be paywalled: Rauf Report: BYU's massive problem, why Gonzaga's loss was foreseeable, and more trends to monitor
If so, here’s the first paragraph for you:
While Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s have been the teams of note to follow in the WCC like always, Santa Clara has been quietly sneaking up on everyone. One week you’re glancing at a score and thinking, huh, Santa Clara won again, and then you look up and realize the Broncos have been quietly stacking wins, playing their best basketball of the season, and now sitting alone at the top of the WCC. That’s where we are right now following Gonzaga’s loss to Portland, and it feels like the point where Santa Clara stops being a “nice story” and needs to be taken seriously.
Point being–noise is starting to get louder. Hopefully they players drown it out. Most important game of the season on Saturday. Arguably the most important SCU game in 20+ years 
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From bubble watch on the athletic. Pretty much sums up what we’ve already discussed here. But it’s nice to see us getting love from these sites this late in the year.
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It’s amazing how 6 points in aggregate account for 3 losses: 1 pt loss to SLU, 2 pts to LUC, and 3 pts to ASU. Winning any one of those three would’ve made a huge difference. Billikens would’ve been a Q1 win, as they are up to a 15 NET. LUC would’ve prevented the stain of a Q4 loss. A win against the Sun Devils and SCU would be undefeated against Q2 opponents.
Leaves our Broncos with zero room for error. Must hold serve and beat all of the remaining 4-12 teams AND probably need to win one of the other two games AND need a good showing in the WCC tourney.
SCU’s playoffs started the second the buzzer sounded to end the SMC game.
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Case in point:
Torvik has SCU at a 68.4% chance of making the tourney.
A win tomorrow against Wazzu (not including the impact of other games) moves that up to 71.8%; a loss drops the odds to 50.1%.
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I read that there are 155 Division 1 NCAA men’s basketball games today (because of Super Bowl). I’ll be tracking Torvik’s “root for” page closely, as there could be a lot of leverage going for (or against) the Broncos.
Hi everyone. Class of ‘96 guy here. I’ve come down with a case of March Madness for the first time since my senior year 30 years ago, and I heard this place is a good support group for other people who suffer from this affliction.
For my debut post on this board, I’ll share my viewing/rooting guide for today. Seeds shown below are per yesterday’s version of Joe Lunardi’s ESPN bracketology. In included every game for teams that are projected #9 seeds through “next 4 out”.
9 AM: #9 Wisconsin @ #9 Indiana - probably doesn’t matter who wins/loses, but a decisive win that exposes one of the teams as a pretender would be nice. Indiana jumped out to a huge lead early, but now it’s only a 5 point game with 6 minutes left.
9 AM: VA Tech @ #7 NCSU - VT is one of the first teams out, so we’re rooting for NCSU. So far so good with 8 minutes left.
10 AM: Missouri @ S.Carolina - Missouri is one of the “next 4 out”. Not looking good so far.
11 AM: #11 Miami-FL @ BC - BC is 9-13 so hoping for a Flutie hail mary
11 AM: #11 Texas @ Ole Miss - Ole Miss is 11-11
11 AM: TCU vs KSU - TCU is one of the “next 4 out”. KSU is 10-12
11 AM: Baylor @ #2 Iowa St - Baylor is one of the “next 4 out”
11 AM: #9 SMU @ Pitt - Pitt is 9-14.
1 PM: Okla St @ #1 Arizona - Okla St is one of the first 4 out.
1 PM: #11 Miami-OH @ Marshall - Marshall is 15-8, so this is do-able.
3 PM: #11 SCU @ WSU - Hmm, I think we want the Broncos to win this, no?
3 PM: #10 Georgia @ LSU - LSU is 14-8
3 PM: Seton Hall @ Creighton - Seton is “next 4 out” and Creighton is 12-11
5 PM: Cal vs #6 Clemson - Cal is “first 4 out”
5 PM: San Diego St vs Air Force - SDSU is “first 4 out”, Air Force is 3-19.
7 PM: #10 UCLA vs Washington - UW is 12-11
7 PM: #11 New Mexico vs Boise St - BSU is 14-9
8:30 PM: #10 St. Mary’s vs USF. What’s more valuable? SMC helping out strength of schedule, or opening up an extra at-large spot? I think it’s the former.
Tomorrow (Sunday)
9 AM: #10 USC @ Penn St - PSU is 10-13
10 AM: #11 Ohio St vs #1 Michigan
11 AM: #9 UCF @ Cincinnati - Cincy is 11-12
Go Broncos!!!
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Welcome! Misery loves company
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With the win, SCU will slide into the top-40 for WAB. That’s just shy of the “safe zone” for a Tournament bid. With two more wins (i.e. beating the Redhawks and Zags), they’ll leap into the low 30s where they become close to a lock if they just hold serve.
Also, Seton Hall just lost to Creighton. That’s big for the teams living on the bubble.
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Rocky!!! Glad to see you here.
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Not much help so far this weekend with the teams ranked ahead of SCU, however 5 of the first 8 teams out (per espn) lost today. That’s a positive development that could give us some cushion to absorb our next loss, whenever that may be.
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On3 has us up at a 10 seed playing Kentucky.
Most places that had us in yesterday or Friday - if they did at all - put us as an 11 seed.
Lots of basketball left to play.
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What a great season so far. Proud to be a bronco. I do believe that SCU will need to beat either GOnzaga or SMC to get a bid, or win the tournament. Is it fair??? I don’t think so but it is what it is.
I got very upset listening to the telecast of the Ohio State Michigan game today when one of the blowhards commenting on Tilly transferring to OSU from Santa Clara said “playing for a mid major is like going to junior college to prepare yourself for a power five program”. OSU went on to lose by 21 and are ninth in the math challenged Big Ten (18 teams). Last year all but two teams in the SEC made it in. I think this how the NCAA looks at it though. Big schools in smaller schools like mid-majors out.
All the Broncos can do is play their best and win as many games as they can to put pressure on the committee. It would be great to see our team in the big dance. They are playing well and I hope we can keep our players next year as it looks like we have a solid foundation to build on. GO BRONCOS!!!
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A few of the bracketologies will post today from the weekend. Here’s the first I saw. Good (brief) writeup on SCU, including the critical caveat that the Broncos better not be looking past Seattle.
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Maddog,
Frustrating as that type of commentary may be, I simply try to remember the countervailing point - what happened to Brandin Podziemski when he went from the “Big Leagues” at Illinois to apparently AAA Santa Clara? He got to showcase his talents and now plays in the NBA as a first-round draft pick.
Tilly got paid, which I don’t begrudge, and will end up playing professionally in Europe next year if he wants – that was probably his outcome the whole time, Santa Clara or Ohio State. There may well be a kid on the Ohio State bench who could transfer to a Mid-Major and blossom into a star.
Incidentally, Torvik sees Santa Clara and Ohio State as very similar teams this year (with Santa Clara ranked slightly higher), probably a toss-up game on a neutral court. We beat our only common opponent, Minnesota, by 11 on a neutral floor while OSU won by 8 at home…
Mid-Majors make college basketball great and I think including more mediocre power conference teams imperils the special-ness of the Tournament over the long term. My law degree is from a power conference school (as is Patty’s) and I find nothing compares to rooting for your alma mater with a smaller group of devoted fans.
I plan to be at both games this week - I know the crowd will be wild Saturday, but I encourage those in the area on the fence to come on Wednesday if they can.
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I was once asked by a friend from law school (and a double Wolverine) if I would be more excited by Michigan winning a national championship or Santa Clara making the Tournament. He was scandalized when I said it was the latter and it wasn’t close.
Just maybe I’ll be lucky enough to see both in quick succession, though.
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2 votes… 100% increase 
Gonzaga falls 6 spots to 12.
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