3 days ago, there were about 28 teams trying to cram into 8 at-large "bubble" spots. With teams like Georgetown, South Carolina, Kansas State, Notre Dame, and Miami playing themselves "off the board" (but other teams playing themselves into the tournament), it's down to about 17 teams looking at 5 available spots.
So far Wake Forest is doing us no favors. If Maryland wins, it helps them a ton.
Lucky for Auburn, a lot of the teams that may be slightly ahead of us on the list of 17, are already done playing (Arizona, UNLV, Davidson, etc), and we play another team, Florida, tonight, that is currently in front of us. So while they may be slightly in front of us, they can do nothing to improve their position and can only fall as we rise.
If we can pull it off tonight, it may put us in the top 8 teams looking at those 5 spots. This will be affected significantly by what teams like Maryland, Penn State, USC, and St. Mary's do tonight. So keep an eye on them, we need them to lose (although Maryland looks like they are about to pick up a win over a top 10 team).
UPDATE:
Right now New Mexico is the #65 team in (don't forget there are 65 spots, not 64), and Doug Gottleib on ESPN just said that he thinks the winner of the Florida / Auburn game would take the place of New Mexico. However, any team sitting at #65 or #64 is in danger of being supplanted by some other team that all of the sudden adds a big win.
UPDATE:
Some really bad news. Temple beat Xavier, so now the A-10 will put in an automatic bid team that was previous not expected to get in. Xavier will still get in as an at-large, but they were going to be an auto bid. So now Temple or another unexpected team will take an auto spot.
"To me Auburn is not in Auburn, Alabama. Auburn is the people who care about Auburn, the people who love Auburn. Wherever they are, that’s Auburn, Auburn is in your heart. You play for it."
Auburn really just needs to win the sec tournament. It will be almost impossible for them to get in the NCAA without the auto bid.
That would make it nice and clean, for sure. But I don't think that's the only chance. If you look through those teams I listed above, we really just have to win one or two games and hope that some more of the other bubbles play themselves out (which quite a few have already done).
Penn State is getting killed right now, and Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, UAB, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, and Kentucky have already done us a favor.
If we beat Florida, we still have reason to watch on Sunday, anything can happen (Like when we got in in 2003). If we beat Florida and Tennessee (who is looking good lately and the highest rated RPI SEC team), we should look forward to Sunday with great anticipation (but of course, nothing guaranteed).
"To me Auburn is not in Auburn, Alabama. Auburn is the people who care about Auburn, the people who love Auburn. Wherever they are, that’s Auburn, Auburn is in your heart. You play for it."
As of today, Penn State is still considered in. AU is on the "out" side of the bracket.
I said before, I don't understand that.
We get wrapped up in the games and the emotion. These guys doing the bracket and who make a living following it don't pay any attention to that. It's strictly numbers with them.
It's sort of like how credit is now. Back when I was a kid, banks were locally owned. You walked in, knew the banker, sat down and figured out what kind of loan they could make depending on your needs. Now, you go in and the bankers are never the same. Always some young kids two or three years out of college, they don't know you, don't know your situation, don't know anything other than what some numbers on a sheet of paper tell them. Got a good friend in the timber business. Been with the same bank 25 years. Never had to worry if he needed something, he just asked. Bank was bought out last year by a regional bank. He went in to get the usual "start up" money that he's paid off every year without fail and on time. Got put through the wringer for two weeks and finally partially denied. Walked across the street to the other bank, still local, and left an hour later with what he needed.
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Some men just want to watch the world BURN
So much for the East of the 4 teams left in SEC tournament 3 are from the West.
And still today I heard somebody on the radio talking about the SEC being down and the West being a significantly weaker division -- because Kentucky and Florida are in the East.
Closed minds.
Here's the rub. We're following every shot, every emotional swing. We SEE the heart this team displays even in spite of some questionable coaching. Yes, I said it. Some questionable coaching last night, in fact. But WE are paying attention.
Most of the people who will be making the selections? All they see is a score. "Oh, Auburn beat Florida. Okay. And Tennessee beat Alabama. Check." Nothing more.
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Some men just want to watch the world BURN
tonights tournament games
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