Gary Parrish

 if Davidson (26-7) or St. Mary's (25-6) were a 'power conference' team they wouldn't of been talking bubble at all the whole year..........

 Correct.  If they were in a 'power conference' they would be around 16-15 and in the bottom 3rd of the conference standings (ala G'Town).  Thus they would not be considered bubble teams.  Davidson is NOT the Davidson of last year, and St. Mary's without Mills would NOT have been able to compete in the ACC and Big East.

Live by the three die by the three.  4 of 19 from 3 point land and 54 points isn't going to get it done very often.

It's obvious the NCAA approach of automatic bids for winning Conference Tournaments doesn't get the best 65 teams in the country into the tournament.  This will never change.  The automatic bids help turn the turnstiles at the arenas around the country hosting the conference championships. 

We blame the selection committee too often for the snubbed teams when we should actually be looking at the process that gives the committee no chance to place the top 65 in the tournament.

Congratulations to Cleveland State never-the-less.  They played a great game to beat their nemesis Butler.

Kinda like football...maybe one of the teams that gets hosed should be the 7th or 8th team from one of the Big Six conferences. Sure, Penn St. may be better than Cleveland St. and Butler combined, but they barely won half of their conference games. Hell, one of those games they won with 38 points! So, even if they get in, there are at least 5 other Big Ten teams with better or similar conf. records. And their 21-10 record consisted of beating on such powerhouses as NJIT (1-30), Lafayette (8-22) and Hartford (7-26). CSU or Butler might not have any better chance of winning, but I'd bet you they want it more. Besides, we all know how wonderful the Big Ten is at post season play (again, let's refer to football).

 Ok so no offense to Butler fans or to those who have had Butler ranked all year but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it, Butler sucks.  Ok maybe that's a strong word, but hey when you lose to Loyola Chicago, maybe not that strong.  I believe Butler is done in the first round (aka last years Drake).  I would love to see Butler a 5 or 6 seed go up against... say, Western Kentucky, yeah...this should be familiar... Hilltoppers.  Ok so Butler beat Xavier, big whoop.  If that's seriously the only game you can look at and say wow, that's sad.  That's why if I was either the Wildcats of Davidson or Northwestern, I would be embarassed right now for letting that game get away.  That in of itself should tell you, pack your stuff for the NIT.

Another note:  I loved the intensity of Cleveland St. throughout the Horizon League tournament and by the way espn 360 rocks, cbs should definitely do something for the conference tourneys next year.  So here's my prediction for the Vikings, anything worse than a 14th seed and there one and done, but a 14th seed or better, who knows.... last year's San Diego??  Yeah still stratching my head about that one, UConn... nevermind its still painful to think about.    

I can't believe what I'm about to say but.... you know why Cleveland St. won it's because Butler benefits from Cle. St. going there. I don't mean to sound all college football esk but because Cle. St. won, Butler and their conference the Horizon League benefit so maybe in a way it was fixed?????????

All the bubble teams hate Butler yes but doesn't the conference and now Butler benefit ($$$) from Cle St. going to the Dance?

What do you think Gary Parrish? 

Oh and if Davidson (26-7) or St. Mary's (25-6) were a 'power conference' team they wouldn't of been talking bubble at all the whole year..........

As a long time fan of mid-major basketball I am supremely happy that CSU beat Butler tonight.  It has long been my position that the major conference tournaments are simply there to squeeze one additional middle-of-the-road team into the tournament.  Many teams on the top of their conferences (Big 10, Big East, ACC, etc) simply don't play with the intensity in rounds two and three since it doesn't matter nearly as much to them.  It is nice to see a mid-major do the same thing.  I don't think Butler necessarily took the night off, but they certainly were not playing with the intensity that they have in the "regular season"

...the hounds will howl.

Oh,well.  They're doin' that anyway.

 The real bad news is those teams go into their conference tournaments KNOWING they had to win their way in just to make sure they could relax on Sunday...

if they cant get it together, too bad....they had their chance....

Cleveland State had their chance and made the most of it by grabbing the brass ring...St Mary's had theirs and fell short....

Besides, most of those so-called bubble teams are the 'sloppy seconds'...generally mediocre teams from the power conferences who really dont deserve bids anyway (in conjunction with a recent column that suggested whacking the NCAA down to 32 given the overall poor quality of play this season...), and whose purpose is to show up, get the additional bid money for their power conference, get waxed by a small team playing harder and with more heart (see Siena vs Vandy last year), and go home...