Originally sent on Wednesday, March 18, 2003.
And so it finally ends. What a crazy end to the season. This year, the MRI did a much better job at projecting the final teams in the field, but didn't quite agree with all the seedings, especially for those teams which were in and shouldn't have been. The MRI missed 3 teams this year. The teams that made it which I didn't have were Butler, Indiana, and North Carolina State. Instead I would have filled the field with Western Michigan, Illinois-Chicago, and Texas Tech. Sorry to all you Boston College fans out there, you just didn't do enough to get yourselves in. Another win in the Big East tournament might have done it.

In terms of conference tournaments, the MRI did fairly well at predicting the winners. Of the BCS conferences, the MRI got 4 of 6 missing only the Big 12 and the Pac 10. For the other 25 conferences, the MRI was 14 for 25, with many of the losses coming in the finals of the tournaments (see Valparaiso, Murray State, Chattanooga, Hampton, Gonzaga).

So, what does this all mean? We are in for the most competitive tournament ever, though the regions are not as well balanced as I would have like to have seen. I think that the committee should have spread the strength in the West Region across the other three, making the road a little more difficult for teams like Texas, Xavier, Florida, Oklahoma, and Wake. As in past years, I would look for those teams which I didn't select to lose in the first round. Out of the 13 teams I have missed over the past two years, 10 have lost in the first round, with only one moving further than a single win (Missouri last year). Other than that, the biggest upsets that the MRI seem to think will happen are BYU moving to the Sweet 16, and Creighton beating Duke in the Second round. Even if they dont happen just that way, I think that these will be very good games.

Other games to watch this year: Michigan State and Colorado, Holy Cross and Marquette, Missouri and Southern Illinois, Cincy and Gonzaga (Can Cincy score enough points to match their defensive effort?), Memphis and Arizona State, Oklahoma State and Penn.

Enjoy the tournament everyone, and look for articles during the tournament on this site. In addition, I plan to post articles during the baseball and football seasons also. It is going to be a fun year.

And Now the Final Rankings

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
1
Kentucky
29-3
185.28
3
2
Kansas
23-7
179.27
2
3
Arizona
25-3
176.50
1
4
Pittsburgh
26-4
175.65
4
5
Louisville
24-6
162.21
6
6
Creighton
29-4
158.21
7
7
Illinois
24-6
155.31
10
8
Duke
24-6
152.08
9
9
Texas
22-6
151.03
5
10
Oklahoma
24-6
148.64
13
11
Xavier
25-5
144.39
8
12
Wisconsin
22-7
141.18
11
13
Wake Forest
24-5
139.21
16
14
Maryland
19-9
137.37
12
15
Florida
24-7
135.22
15
16
Mississippi State
21-9
134.78
19
17
Marquette
23-5
134.14
14
18
BYU
23-8
130.16
17
19
Syracuse
24-5
124.59
18
20
LSU
21-10
123.93
23
21
St. Joseph's
23-6
123.22
22
22
Holy Cross
25-4
121.93
24
23
Gonzaga
23-8
118.99
20
24
Connecticut
21-9
118.28
NR(32)
25
Notre Dame
22-9
117.37
21

Teams Dropped From The Top 25:
Memphis (LW #25, TW #27)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
30
Purdue
18-10
109.37
30
31
Michigan State
19-12
109.12
36
34
Dayton
24-5
105.57
43
36
Pennsylvania
22-5
104.62
38
53
Texas Tech
18-12
87.23
56
59
Georgia Tech
14-14
83.49
53
67
Indiana
20-12
75.58
79
106
Drexel
18-11
54.38
104
114
North Carolina
17-15
50.34
120
118
Iowa
15-13
49.68
113
121
Florida State
14-15
47.94
122
158
Miami
11-17
31.53
152
167
Ball State
13-17
28.19
157
234
Wofford
10-15
-0.13
234

Last Place this week:  Arkansas-Pine Bluff (4-24) at -133.94.  8th week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Pittsburgh gained 16.63 points (Beat Providence, Boston College, and Connecticut)
Biggest Loss this week: Texas A&M lost 9.27 points (Lost to Iowa State)

Conference rankings this week:  Big 12, SEC, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Pac 10, Mountain West, C-USA, Atlantic 10, MVC, Horizon, Sun Belt, WCC, WAC

Enjoy
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