Bracketology, Just Because: St. Joseph's and Kentucky Edition

The Wildcats tourney hopes are looking perkier (wink)..... I have no shame.

In the edict for those of us on the Intertubes that use words to describe college basketball in informed (hopefully) and entertaining (rarely) ways, the right to create a bracket is indelible. It's right there with making fun of Dick Vitale and finding Erin Andrews attractive in the "Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness" portion of our Constitution. And even though you can go basically anywhere else to get one of these bad boys (including here, here, here and here), I'm going to post my projected bracket every Tuesday and Friday until Selection Sunday anyway, with each including a extra special bonus*: a profile of a Bubble team or two.
*bonus may not be extra or special

Since it's basically impossible to post an entire bracket in a Blogger post without burning the retinas of readers, you can check it out in beautiful yet annoying spreadsheet form by clicking the link below. (Conference champs, the yellow cells, based on current league standings).

Bracketology, February 29

Last Four In: Syracuse (62), Florida (63), St. Joseph's (64), UAB (65)
First Four Out: Rhode Island (66), Southern Illinois (67), Kentucky (68), Villanova (69)

Bubble Profiles
Previously: February 26, Rhode Island and UAB

IN: St. Joseph's
Record: 17-9 (8-5, Atlantic 10), 9-4
RPI: 55
Key Wins: UMass (2), Villanova, Rhode Island
Key Losses: Holy Cross, Syracuse, Gonzaga, Duquesne, Xavier, LaSalle (home), St. Louis (home)

The Hawks are hanging by a thread after a terrible loss last night at home to the high-powered, genital-flaunting St. Louis Billikens. Before that, they looked to be safely in with wins over fellow Bubblers Rhode Island, Villanova and UMass twice. But now that they have lost four of six, including two at home to St. Louis and LaSalle, it might be hard for the committee to put the Hawks in over hotter teams like Southern Illinois and Kentucky. I mean, based on overall profile I would definitely take the Hawks over UMass, especially due to the head-to-head wins, but the Minutemen haven't been dropping easy home games lately. The saving grace for St. Joe's will probably be its nine road wins, which include victories over the Cuse, Siena, URI and UMass. It is 6-6 against the Top 100 but has three losses to sub-100 teams.

How To Stay/Get In: The three games left -- home against Temple and Xavier, at Dayton -- are all going to be very tough. A 2-1 record in those games should be good enough to tread water, unless one of the wins is over Xavier, in which case the Hawks ticket will be punched... barring a catastrophe, of course (all criteria for Bubble teams to get into the NCAAs should be read with condition, "barring a catastrophe" in mind). As for the A-10 tournament, given its homicidal nature, a first-round exit is completely possible but still totally unacceptable. A trip to the semis should be enough if the aforementioned 2-1 is achieved. The Committee is loudly boasting that they don't consider conference affiliation when selecting teams but I can't see how they don't take two A-10 Bubble teams unless the Conference Tourney turns into Baghdad.

OUT: Kentucky
Record: 16-10 (10-3, SEC), 3-5 road
RPI: 56
Key Wins: Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi
Key Losses: Gardner Webb, Houston, UAB, San Diego, UNC, Indiana, UAB, Louisville, Florida,

I really want the Wildcats to find their way into the tournament, I really do. And that's basically because they are one of the fews teams that knows the odds against them but goes out and, you know, wins games. The non-conference schedule killed them as they earned no solid wins and had killer losses to Gardner Webb and some Bubble teams. But they also had some good losses against current top 10 teams (Indiana, UNC and Louisville), which should make the 16-10 record not as detrimental. In conference play, they have beaten every SEC team in tournament discussion besides Mississippi State and Florida, both of which they played on the road. It seems crazy for a top three team in the SEC standings to get left out, but given the insane year down there, it's very possible.

How To Stay/Get In: Well, win at Tennessee Saturday and you're in. That's probably a given (sigh... again, barring a catastrophe). But since that probably won't happen, the Cats need to win at South Carolina and beat Florida at home to end the regular season. That will get them to 12-4 in conference, give them a split against the one SEC Bubble team they didn't have an edge on and earn them a bye in the conference tourney. Once they are in Atlanta, to even be in the discussion, the Cats are going to need a trip to the semis or some properly timed, ahem, campaigning from Ashley Judd to the Selection Committee. I've got to think if they finish 12-4 in conference and make the SEC Final, which would probably involve beating Vanderbilt or Mississippi State on the way, would be enough to guarantee a spot, regardless of what happens elsewhere. This is clearly a different team than the one that lost to Gardner Webb and is definitely playing like one of the top 34 at-large teams right now.

***UPDATE***: All of this may be moot as Kentucky just got the awful news that freshman forward and all-around squad-carrier Patrick Patterson is out for the year with a fractured ankle. Just as the Cats look to solidify one of the best in-season turnarounds you'll ever see, and just as they head to Tennessee for a monstrous game, their postseason hopes essentially disappear. That really, really blows.