After the loss on Saturday to Drake, I took no fewer than four phone calls from people wondering if I knew whether the Qwest Center would be available for a NIT game. (It is). These same people prefaced their calls by asking whether I think the Jays have any shot at an at-large bid (I didn't, and I still don't).
In an ideal world, the fourth place team in the seventh or eighth best conference would be squarely on the bubble, and with a couple of breaks, could find themselves in. Of course, we don't live in such a world. The world we live in is one where a game between two pedestrian Big East teams is billed as an "elimination game". That's how the Worldwide Leader in Horse Poop billed the Villanova-Syracuse game on Wednesday. 19-11 Villanova and 19-12 Syracuse. After Nova won, they're 20-11, and according to the WWL, they're in, and Syracuse is out.
Nothing puts a smile on my face faster than hearing Jim Boeheim's team won't make the tournament. There's not a coach in America with a bigger sense of entitlement, in my opinion, and seeing his team shipped off to the NIT makes me very happy.
On Monday, I got an email from a reader who firmly believed the Jays were in line for a bid. To the NCAA Tournament. Right, I said. You bet, I said.
On Tuesday, I talked to my dad back in Iowa on the phone, and he too believed the Jays were going to get a bid. I dismissed this as the ramblings of a Drake alum who was trying to make his son, a Creighton alum, feel better about Saturday's loss.
On Wednesday, one of my co-workers asked me if I thought San Diego's unexpected win in the WCC tourney -- and the auto bid that went with it -- would knock Illinois State out of the NCAAs. I thought it was a distinct possibility, but I went to RealTime RPI to see if I could defend such opinions with numbers. And dammit anyway, it only took me a matter of 10 seconds before a silent rage overtook me.
The Jays RPI? 47 and moving up, likely the result of Oral Roberts winning the Summit Conference Tournament and St. Joseph's winning their first game in the A-10 tourney. The Jays own wins over both teams, of course.
Clearly I'm taking crazy pills, or maybe just eating too much crazy bread from Little Caesars lately...but is it just me, or is there still hope? Bear with me, because I know this sounds crazy. I'm like Vasco De Gama claiming I can circumvent the cape of Africa here or something.
Both Villanova and Syracuse have worse RPI's than Creighton.
Suppose St. Joseph's wins another game and gets to the A-10 final, where they lose to Xavier.
Suppose Nebraska upsets Kansas and makes the Big XII final, where they lose.
Where would the Jays RPI wind up by 5pm on Sunday? It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for them to move up four or five spots, to 42 or 43. That, folks, puts them smack dab on the bubble. They're still out more than likely, but I'm saying I think there's a chance. Minute, but its there.
Now, someone crack me open a PBR, make me put my Disco Shoes back in the closet, and tell me to put down the crazy bread. It may be false hope, but you have to admit it will make the Selection Show that much more fun to watch. You bet.
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