Originally sent on Sunday, March 10, 2002.

Well, it all ended tonight and an interesting tournament will follow. The MRI missed 7 at-large teams this year, including Butler and Utah State – two teams that won their regular season conference title and then lost in the tournament. The magic cut-off number in the MRI was 51. If you have a 51 or higher rank in the MRI, I felt you deserved to go to the tournament. The 7 teams I did not have? Wyoming, Utah, St. John’s, Boston College, UCLA, Pepperdine, and Wisconsin. I mention this because of the 6 teams I did not have last year, 5 lost in the first round. Missouri was the only one of the teams last year to win a game and they beat one of the other teams. So, this year, I could again have all those teams lose except one. Wisconsin and St. John’s play in the first round. I am hoping that once again, these teams are shown not to belong.

Of the teams that didn’t make it, I feel that Butler and Memphis were really the ones who should be disappointed. I would figure that they will be selected to play in the NIT. Of the 6 teams last year that I picked that did not make the NCAA tournament, 5 made the NIT field. Of those 5, I had both of the final participants in the NIT – Alabama and Tulsa. So, I have a little better chance this year and we shall see what happens.

Duke sets a new high record for the MRI: 243.04
Savannah State set a new low, beating Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s terrible score: -140.24

Conference Ratings this week: ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big East, PAC-10, Big Ten, C-USA

And Now the Rankings

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
1
Duke
29-3
243.04
1
2
Cincinnati
30-3
227.51
2
3
Kansas
27-3
205.59
3
4
Oklahoma
27-4
183.75
5
5
Maryland
26-4
181.01
4
6
Florida
22-8
167.59
6
7
Kent State
26-5
153.99
9
8
Oregon
22-8
151.89
7
9
Alabama
26-7
145.23
10
10
Pittsburgh
27-5
143.98
11
11
Gonzaga
28-3
142.78
8
12
Marquette
26-6
140.62
13
13
Illinois
24-8
137.77
12
14
Mississippi State
26-7
133.65
17
15
Ohio State
23-7
132.92
22
16
Texas Tech
23-8
131.41
16
17
Western Kentucky
26-3
131.26
14
18
USC
22-9
130.15
24
19
Dayton
20-10
124.33
23
20
Butler
25-5
123.60
20
21
Memphis
21-9
122.70
19
22
Kentucky
19-9
122.48
18
23
Oklahoma State
23-8
122.28
15
24
Xavier
25-5
120.90
NR
25
Tulsa
25-6
118.49
NR

Teams Dropped From The Top 25:
Stanford (LW #21, TW #26), Southern Illinois (LW #25, TW #31)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
28
Indiana
19-11
116.27
26
29
Notre Dame
20-10
113.50
30
35
Miami
24-7
106.45
35
36
Texas
20-11
105.60
31
41
Pennsylvania
25-6
104.49
49
50
Iowa
19-15
93.22
54
51
Michigan State
18-11
93.00
46
66
Ball State
19-11
81.24
64
82
Georgia Tech
15-16
65.75
79
159
Drexel
14-14
33.10
164
161
Purdue
13-18
32.49
150
279
Wofford
7-18
-29.02
280

Last Place this week:  Savannah State (2-24) at -140.24.  3rd week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Cincinnati gained 22.27 points (Beat South Florida, UNC-Charlotte, and Marquette)
Biggest Loss this week: Eastern Michigan lost 8.95 points (Lost to Toledo)

Enjoy

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