Life Lesson for 129 Teams With a Chance, 46 Eliminated Thursday

All of the 129 teams that still have a chance at an NCAA bid should take a lesson from Providence Coach Ed Cooley’s final words in Madison Square Garden, in response to a Breitbart Sports question Thursday about how to deal with the loss that ended their six-game winning streak.

“I think your question is great. We definitely don’t need to see this (tape of the 70-58 loss to Creighton). I saw it once. Right now – what I just talked to the team about is anytime you have a chance to control your own destiny, not just in basketball, in life, when you have a chance to control what you want to do and you don’t take advantage of it, don’t complain. We had an opportunity to cement ourselves clearly and we didn’t take advantage of that. It’s a great learning point for our kids.”

Thursday night saw Big East 1-seed Villanova win, but all three other semifinal teams pulled upsets, such as Xavier, Creighton and Seton Hall beating Butler, Providence and Marquette, giving the Big East a chance at seven bids to have the highest percent of teams make the tournament of any conference but a few with very shaky resumes that could be left out.

“When we lost Maurice and Xavier lost Edmond, you could take the (middle) eight and put us all in the hat and pick us out any night,” said Creighton coach McDermott. “I think that’s what you’ve seen happen in the league over the course since those two injuries.”

In other games of note, TCU shocked Kansas in the Big 12 title game. TCU would need to win the conference to make the tournament according to all 135 experts, but the loss for Kansas could let Villanova become the No. 1 overall seed. Indiana hammered Iowa in a battle of two teams that will be a long shot for an at-large bid, but the win should at least increase Indiana’s 2% chance. The teams still alive in each conference tournament (see “Next Tour” or the date of each teams next game) are still alive for the title except for Alcorn State in the semifinal of the SWAC, which is ineligible.

The at-large percentages are the percent of experts who believe the team will make the tournament even if they do not win their conference championship, but if a team has already won their conference or are picked by all 135 experts to go regardless, then they are listed at 100% and their status is “in” instead of “bubble.” The 68 teams that make it will be announced Sunday night on CBS.