After the first few conference post-season tournaments, things have pretty much gone Penn State's way. Since the Lions are squarely on the bubble, it would be best for their tourney hopes if no at-large bid worthy team lost in its conference tournament. When squads like Gonzaga and Siena took their conference hardware on Monday night, it meant that the full complement of at-large bids were still up for grabs. Teams like Davidson and Creighton could potentially get an at-large bid after getting bounced from their respective conference brackets, but I think both of those teams are behind Penn State anyway.
The real threat to Penn State's chances will come later this week when the other major conference's tournaments begin. Should a team other than LSU or Auburn win the SEC, or a team like Cincinnati, Notre Dame or Georgetown cut down the nets in the Big East tournament, they could potentially take a spot away from Penn State. But all this speculating about other conference tournaments is a bit premature, the Lions really only have one thing to worry about, the Indiana Hoosiers.
If there were one team I didn't want Penn State to play in the conference tournament besides Michigan State, it would be Indiana. The Hoosiers not only came within three points of ruining the Lions' senior day at the Bryce Jordan Center earlier this season, but they have home court advantage and absolutely nothing to lose. Still, if the Lions can't beat Indiana with their tournament hopes on the line, they probably don't deserve an at-large bid after all.
Drawing the Hoosiers could be the one silver lining of the Lions' precipitous fall from a potential #2 seed in the Big Ten tournament down to #6. Yes, the Lions lost out on a first-round bye, but they also earned a chance to pick up an important win against the last-place team in the conference and landed in the opposite half of the bracket from top-seeded Michigan State and Wisconsin, a team we just can't seem to solve.
Should Penn State pad its tournament resume with another victory, it will make it that much tougher for the committee to exclude them on selection sunday. On the other end of the coin, should the Lions end their season with back-to-back losses to the conferences two worst teams, Iowa and Indiana, I'll remind you that you can't spell Nittany without N.I.T.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
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2 comments:
Knock on wood, but the conference tourneys played so far continues to help us out. Georgetown and Cincinnati made early exits in the Big East Championship tonight. (Thank you Depaul and St. Johns). By the way, I'm watching the SUMMIT League Championship right now. First of all, I've never heard of the Summit league, and didn't know they get a bid every year. Second of all, its the first major sporting event ever televised live from the state of South Dakota. I love trivial facts. GO NORTH DAKOTA STATE!
This is the time in the season where teams must have a sense of urgency. I completely agree... If we don't beat Indiana, we don't deserve an at large bid. If we do, not only are we in, but I like how we match up against Purdue.
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