Thursday night commenced the Madness before March even started. What wasn't surprising was that good teams lost. What was suprising was who those teams lost to. St. Louis, with their two month winning streak in tow, was stunned by lowly Duquense. Kentucky lost to Arkansas (leading to a season sweep). Ohio St. lost a head scratcher in Happy Valley. Memphis lost to a Houston team that has been decimated with injuries and transfers. None of these teams are on the bubble (at least not yet). They're all going to make the tournament. However, (St. Louis aside) those losses only reinforced the fact that despite carrying cache and marketable brands, their profiles aren't that good and neither will their seed be on Selection Sunday unless they rack up significant wins in the next two weeks. Let's take a look at the profiles of some of the teams close to the 6/7 seed line and look at who could leapfrog them.

Kentucky (7 seed):
RPI
1-50: 2-4
51-100: 11-3
101-200: 3-0
201+: 5-0
Away: 5 -3
                                                         Neutral: 1-2

Notes: Very strong OOC schedule but only 1 OOC quality win (Louisville-H), only other quality win is at Mizzou (11 seed), only quality win away from home is at Mizzou as well.

Ohio St (6 seed):
RPI
1-50: 4-4
51-100: 7-1
101-200: 8-2
201+: 3-0
Away: 5-4
Neutral: 1-0

Notes: 0 quality OOC wins, one quality win away from home (Wisconsin), nearly 2/3rds of all games played at home and played 11 home games, one road, and one neutral game in OOC (the selection committee will notice this).

Iowa (7 seed):
RPI
1-50: 4-8
51-100: 2- 1
101-200: 7-0
201+: 5-0
Away: 4 - 5
                                                         Neutral: 3-1

Notes: 1 OOC quality win (Xavier), one quality win away from home (Ohio St), lost three straight (Wisconsin, @Minnesota, @Indiana).

UConn (7 seed):
RPI
1-50: 4-5
51-100 4-0
101-200: 7-1
201+: 7-0
Away: 6-3
Neutral: 3-0

Notes: Signature OOC win vs Florida, only other quality wins vs Memphis (twice).

Stanford (7 seed):
RPI
1-50: 5-7
51-100: 1-2
101-200: 9-0
201+: 3-0
Away: 6-4
Neutral 1 - 2

Notes: Signature OOC win at UConn, wins vs UCLA, at Cal, Arizona St, @Oregon, overall strong resume and will probably stay at least on the 7 line or move up if they hold strong                                                              until Selection Sunday.

VCU (8 seed):
RPI
1-50: 2-4
51-100: 4-2
101-200:  11-1
                                                                    201+: 4-0
                                                                    Away: 5-5
                                                                    Neutral 3 - 2

Notes: Signature OOC win at Virginia. Four of six quality wins have come away from home. All losses to quality opponents but one were one possession games under a minute to play. Will play St. Louis at home on Saturday. 

Kansas St (8 seed):
RPI
1-50 6-5
51-100 2-2
101-200 6-2
201+ 5-0
Away 2-6
Neutral 3-2
Notes: Two bad OOC losses to No. Colorado/Charlotte, two good OOC wins vs GW/Gonzaga, 0 top 100 road wins. Defeated Kansas, Texas, and Oklahama (all top 5 seeds). All three remaining games are vs top 50 opponents.(Iowa St. @Oklahoma St, Baylor).

George Washington (8 seed):
RPI
1-50: 2-4
51-100: 7-3
101-200: 4-0
201+: 7-0
Away 5-5
                                                               Neutral: 3-1
Notes: Signature OOC win vs Creighton (neutral). No bad losses. Defeated five top 100 opponents in OOC schedule.

PODCAST: Weekend recap hitting on lots of great college basketball action. Listen to the podcast as we cover New Mexico, Indiana State, VCU, and UMass. Check it out and hit us back with your take!

Syracuse loses to Boston College (at home)! No, you weren't dreaming... it really happened. Plus, we cover bubble teams like Providence, St. Johns, Richmond, and Marquette. And, could Creighton and Wichita BOTH end up as 1 seeds? Listen to the latest podcast to find out! Don't forget to leave feedback!

Check out the latest podcast with a focus on University of Virginia basketball (UVA) and looking ahead.

Your team has completely tanked in February. They're at or near the basement of your respective power conference. With a record of 4-9 or 5-8, all hopes are gone for a tournament bid, right? Not so fast. Though rare, there are a few interesting case studies each year of teams that tanked early in the conference schedule, yet had such high powered out of conference resumes  that they remained in the mix for an at large. UConn in 2012 is a classic example. At the end of February, the Huskies looked dead in the water. They were 7-10 in Big East play with a painful loss to Providence (RPI 156). Most experts removed them from consideration for an at-large. But they weren't finished. They rallied to get three more wins before bowing out in the Big East Tournament Semifinals. Because of signature out of conference wins against Florida State and Harvard (RPI 13 and 36, respectively) and two quality wins in Big East play, they had done enough to garner a 9 seed in the 2012 NCAA field. 

Take heart Baylor and Oklahoma State fans. You aren't cooked just yet. Take a look at the quality wins each team has amassed thus far:

Baylor (5-8 Big 12):
Colorado (RPI 26) - Neutral
Dayton (RPI 60) - Neutral 
Kentucky (13) - Neutral
Oklahoma State twice (50) - Home and Away
Kansas State (35)

Oklahoma State (4-9 Big 12):
Memphis (34)
Colorado (26) - Neutral
West Virginia twice (71) - Home and Away
Texas (21)


Conference slip ups and general tailspins aside, these are solid overall resumes. Baylor just needs to finish the regular season at 3-2, and they should be safe for an at-large. Oklahoma State has more work to do, but as Marcus Smart returns this weekend, getting an at-large is still entirely possible. A 4-1 finish would get them to the 8-10 conference threshold.  While 8-10 and several quality wins can get you in the field of 68, I have yet to find an example of a 7-11 or 6-10 conference team getting an at-large bid (if you find an example, please let me know). That would mean beating Texas Tech at home and TCU on the road, plus beating two out of three against Kansas, Kansas State, and at Iowa State. Is it a tall order? Sure. Can it be done? With the Marcus Smart and LeMarcus Nash leading the charge, anything is possible. Don't count either team out just yet.

* Photo credit to www,fullscales.com

Check out the inaugural BracketMarch.com Podcast covering the latest news from the A10 and our projected 1 seeds heading into Selection Sunday.