Living At-Large

Far as we can tell, neither yesterday nor today will crown any new conference champions. And yesterday didn't even move any conference significantly closer to doing so. Yeah, in Conference USA, 16 people lost ODU and five (Booth, J Broder, Atkinson, R Simon, T Cristinzio) lost Western Kentucky. A few entrants' misplaced faith on teams like Long Beach State (Templeton, Gorenstein), Utah State (Templeton) and Kent State (N Donadio, M McAtee, P Leach, B Whiteside, Da Dye, Do Dye, Crotts, Atkinson) was dashed. But basically, as far as the contest is concerned, nothing happened yesterday.

Well, not really nothing. What happened was a bunch of bubble teams tried to bolster their tournament resumes. Since we have nothing else to write about, here's a list of teams that at least some of us like for at-large bids that lost yesterday:

BAD LOSSES:
Ole Miss (chosen by 78) lost to South Carolina;
Illinois (chosen by 39) crushed by Michigan;
Iowa (chosen by 67) lost to Penn State;
Texas A&M (chosen by 73) lost to Auburn;

NOT NECESSARILY BAD BUT POSSIBLY CRITICAL LOSSES:
Miami (chosen by 18) lost to Notre Dame;
UMass (chosen by Steinhardt) lost to La Salle;
St. John's (chosen by 63, including Atkinson to win the Big East) lost to Providence;
Texas (chosen by 43) lost to Iowa State;
Stanford (chosen by 49) lost to Utah;

PROBABLY DON'T MATTER BUT WE MIGHT AS WELL LIST THEM ANYWAY:
West Virginia (chosen by 77, including Steinhardt to win the Big 12) lost to Baylor;
Louisville (chosen by 79, including Booth and A Cristinzio to win the ACC) lost to UNC;
NC State (chosen by 62, including Fitch to win the ACC) crushed by Duke;
Oklahoma State (chosen by 72) lost to Oklahoma;
Butler (chosen by 76, including Booth, Baumgarten, Burch, P Leach, Marshall, Templeton, J Donadio, Sr. to win the Big East) lost to Xavier.

More at-large hopes will presumably be dashed today/tonight. Stay tuned.