The seed numbers are filled in on www.conferenceusa.com. The teams are not filled in, but I can tell you that only the 4/5 seeds (Marshall and Tulsa) and 6/7/8 (SMU, Southern Miss, Houston) have yet to shake out. And yes game times will be as I described last night/this morning … the only exception would be if Marshall makes the semifinal and somehow does not play UTEP.
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What are UTEP’s chances at an at-large bid IF they were to lose in the semis?
From what I keep hearing from the Joe Lunardis of the world, the Miners are iffy and now UAB is iffy and C-USA may get just one bid.
Me, I have a hard time excluding a 14-2 or 15-1 lead from this conference, even if they lose before the finals. You may have helped set the topic for the Monday column.
I was thinking about this last night as ESPN’s ticker reported that the first four out of the tourney would include Memphis and UAB. IF Marshall, Memphis, UAB or Tulsa came out of the Conf with an automatic bid, I can not see UTEP getting left out. However, I can understand the process of leaving the other four out if UTEP wins the conference’s bid. It’s hard to see one of these Big East/ACC teams get an emotional invite to the 65 based off some late season “BIG WIN” with an iffy overall record, then lose in the first round when you have been watching UTEP night after night winning every conference game. Then they have to pray that they don’t have a bad game in their conference tourney, or they could be demoted to the NIT.
I will indeed come to UTEP’s defense in Monday’s column.