Gettin' In: Irish are out, Friars live and holy Mike Singletary

Notre Dame is done.

But Providence is not.

Here's Thursday morning's Gettin' In.

Teams that punched tickets Wednesday: Robert Morris and Portland State earned automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. That means 13 of the 65 spots in the field are claimed.

Keno Davis and Providence continue to fight for an at-large bid. (US Presswire)

Best game: Whenever a team comes from 21 down in the second half to win, that's a great game. So Texas Tech's 88-83 victory over Texas A&M in the Big 12 tournament was great, but not nearly as great as the individual effort of Mike Singletary, who was ridiculous. With a little more than nine minutes remaining, the Red Raiders were down 60-50. Then Singletary scored a layup, hit two free throws, sank a jumper, buried a pair of 3-pointers, hit another layup, hit three free throws, scored another layup, made three more free throws, nailed another 3-pointer, got another layup, and, finally, converted a runner for a 79-78 advantage that led to the victory. Add it up, and this dude scored 29 consecutive points for Texas Tech. He finished with 43 and later described himself as being "in the zone." I guess so.

Team whose dream remained alive: An 83-74 victory over DePaul pushed Providence into the Big East tournament quarterfinals, where top-seeded Louisville awaits. A win there, and the Friars might be in position to claim an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but a loss will almost certainly banish Providence to the NIT.

Team whose dream was crushed: Folks have debated for months what Notre Dame needed to do to get back in position for an at-large bid, and whether it was possible. Now those debates can cease. The Irish's 74-62 loss to West Virginia in the Big East tournament dropped their record to 18-14, and that's just not going to cut it even though, yes, Arizona earned an at-large bid last season with an 18-14 record. The difference? That Arizona team had a 37 RPI, a schedule rated second nationally, and five top 50 wins. This Notre Dame team has a 74 RPI, a schedule rated 39th nationally and two top 50 wins. So again: Not. Gonna. Happen.

Performance I hope you witnessed: Dexter Pittman took 13 shots, made nine and finished with a career-high 26 points in Texas' 67-56 victory over Colorado in the Big 12 tournament. The (roughly) 300-pound (really) big man also grabbed 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, leaving Pittman just 21 double-doubles behind Oklahoma's Blake Griffin for tops in the Big 12.

Performance I hope you missed: Can a team really be held to 10 points in the first half? Yes, apparently, and that team is St. John's, which made three field goals in the first 21 minutes -- that's an average of one every seven minutes, I think -- of a 74-45 loss to Marquette in the Big East tournament. If Lou Carnesecca would've died of cancer years ago (like a young John Calipari once allegedly predicted), the former St. John's coach would've spent the afternoon rolling over in his grave. As it is, Carnesecca is 85 years old and alive. But I still bet 10 points in a half made him sick.

Three random notes

1. A few hours after Conference USA named Jermaine Taylor its Player of the Year, the UCF star (and nation's third-leading scorer) went out and produced his third-worst scoring effort of the season. Taylor made just five of 16 shots and finished with 15 points in the Golden Knight's 77-53 loss to Southern Miss in the C-USA tournament. He was 1-for-8 from 3-point range.

2. Jonny Flynn dished 11 of Syracuse's 30 assists in an 89-74 win over Seton Hall in the Big East tournament. One of those assists was a sweet transition bounce pass to Eric Devendorf, who caught the ball, shot the ball and posed in the corner as it fell through the net. Then he chest-bumped Flynn, and Seton Hall was done. And if you're wondering, yes, I saw Brandon Walters' foul on Syracuse's Kristof Ongenaet. And yes, I thought it was cheap. And yes, I thought Walters should've been ejected, if only for being a punk.

3. Here's something to remember as bubble teams like Auburn (64 RPI), Rhode Island (65 RPI), Penn State (66 RPI), Maryland (67 RPI), Providence (71 RPI) and Kansas State (77 RPI) try to improve their bodies of work before Selection Sunday: Since the last major change in the RPI formula (which was first used for the 2005 NCAA tournament), no school has earned an at-large bid when it was worse than 63rd in the RPI. By that measuring stick, Auburn, Rhode Island, Penn State, Maryland, Providence and Kansas State still have work to do.

Final thought

Less than a year after ESPN highlighted a story about a runner for an agent connected to O.J. Mayo, the network ignored a Yahoo! Sports story about a runner for an agent connected to Kevin Love, and it was hard not to wonder whether it was because this runner is named Jay Williams, who just happens to work for ... ESPN.

Seriously, on the same day Dan Wetzel and Josh Peter authored a fascinating story detailing how Williams, the former Duke star, worked for a New York agent last year and tried to secure Love as a client while the agency donated $250,000 to Love's former AAU coach, Williams was in an ESPN studio breaking down the Big East tournament like he was Jay Bilas or Fran Fraschilla or, you know, somebody who wasn't trying to hustle players just last year.

If only Rodney Guillory would've had a nice secondary job as an analyst.

Guy probably could've avoided a lot of unwanted attention.

Live and learn, I guess.