Bracketology, Just Because: Rhode Island and UAB Edition

Rhody the Ram, trying to flamboyantly tiptoe his way into the Big Dance

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

Last Four In: UMass, Florida, Syracuse, Rhode Island
First Four Out: UAB, Davidson, New Mexico, Villanova

Bubble Profiles
IN: Rhode Island
Record: 20-8 (6-7, Atlantic 10), 4-5 road
RPI: 55
Key Wins: at UAB, at Syracuse, Dayton
Key Losses: St. Louis, Massachusetts (2), St. Joe's, Xavier

The Rams are on the bottom of the A-10 totem pole after four straight losses and an 0-4 record against the other three potential tournament teams in that league (Xavier, St. Joe's, Massachusetts). Unless they can beat one or two of those teams in the conference tournament, they aren't getting in ahead of any of them. When compared with other Bubble teams outside of the A-10 it doesn't look as bad though. URI beat fellow Bubbler UAB on a neutral court and beat Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.

How To Stay/Get In: If URI can win its last three league games (at GW, at LaSalle, vs. Charlotte), it will be at 23 wins and 9-7 in probably the best non-BCS conference, which might not necessitate a deep conference tourney run. I've heard people say that the committee will take Xavier and whichever two of UMass, St. Joe's and URI makes it the furthest in the A-10, which makes decent sense but assumes that there are several Bubble teams capable of playing their way into the Tournament. There isn't; this is probably the weakest Bubble in recent memory and a 24-win season for an A-10 team, no matter how the Rams get there, should be enough.

OUT: UAB
Record: 19-8 (9-3, C-USA), 6-4 road
RPI: 67
Key Wins: Cincinnati, at Kentucky, Old Dominion, Houston
Key Losses: Georgia Southern, South Florida, Marshall, Memphis

The aforementioned UAB, seen above breathing fire even in spite of its RPI, will probably have its fate decided on how the committee views that heartbreaking and terrifying one-point loss to Memphis a couple weeks ago. On paper it's a loss but in reality it could be viewed as the ability to play at a tournament level. Perhaps even more important than that near-win was the win over fellow C-USA Bubbler Houston, which the Blazers beat last week, earning them the tiebreaker for the No. 2 seed in the C-USA Tournament. The problem is Houston has already played (and lost to) Memphis twice while the Blazers still have to travel to FedEx Forum in the last regular season game.

How To Stay/Get In: Assuming a loss to the Tigers, UAB will probably have to win the rest of its games and reach the C-USA semis to even have a chance. It will likely face Houston in that game with the loser probably done for good. However, even if they make the tourney finals they'll get Memphis a third time. If they lose again I guess there's no shame, but getting three cracks at Memphis and failing each time probably doesn't bode well, especially without a win over another tournament team. Beat Memphis once, however, and the Blazers punch their ticket.