Pre-Selection Sunday bubble banter

I've spent 30 minutes trying to think of a clever into to this post and, well, I got nothing. Call it the "I've spent 65 hours the past five days at MSG and its 5am and I'm struggling" effect.

Whatever's clever, anyway. Isn't that how the saying goes?

Anyway, the bubble got significantly smaller today thanks to a couple of bid-stealers.

Houston, the seven seed, beat UTEP in the C-USA title game. New Mexico State, the three seed, knocked off Utah State in the WAC finals. Mississippi State beat Vandy to advance to the finals of the SEC tournament a day after they knocked off fellow bubbler Florida. Minnesota embarrassed Purdue a day after beating Michigan State in overtime to make the Big Ten title game. Washington knocked off Cal in the finals of the Pac-10.

In other words, things couldn't have gone worse Saturday for those teams still on the bubble.

Here's how the bubble is currently shaking out (keep in mind, Minnesota, Mississippi State, and Georgia Tech all have a chance to lock up a bid tomorrow):

Locks

• ACC: Duke, Maryland, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State (5)
  
• Big East: Georgetown, Syracuse, Pitt, Marquette, Louisville, Villanova, Notre Dame (7)
  
• Big XII: Kansas State, Baylor, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Texas (6)
  
• Big Ten: Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State (4)
  
• SEC: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky (3)
  
• A-10: Xavier, Richmond, Temple (3)
  
• MWC: UNLV, BYU, New Mexico (3)
  
• Other: Gonzaga (1)
  

Worst case scenario, there are just three at-large bids available. A win by Kentucky, Duke, and Ohio State would open up three more (either Richmond or Temple is going to earn an auto-bid tomorrow).

So who is competing for those last few spots? (listed is records, RPI, SOS, vs. RPI top 25/50/100)

• Virginia Tech: 23-8, 10-6, 56, 159, 0-3/3-4/8-7
  
• Georgia Tech: 20-11, 7-9, 35, 16, 2-2/5-6/10-9
  
• Minnesota: 21-12, 9-9, 69, 47, 2-3/4-6/5-8
  
• Illinois: 19-13, 10-8, 73, 39, 3-3/5-8/6-9
  
• UTEP: 26-5, 15-1, 33, 108, 0-1/2-1/8-4
  
• Utah State: 27-7, 14-2, 26, 97, 1-0/2-1/10-4
  
• Mississippi State: 22-10, 9-7, 64, 113, 0-4/1-4/7-6
  
• Florida: 21-12, 9-7, 54, 31, 1-8/3-8/8-10
  
• Rhode Island: 23-8, 11-7, 39, 96, 0-4/1-4/7-6
  
• Cal: 23-9, 13-5, 19, 8, 0-3/1-5/6-6
  
• Seton Hall: 19-12, 9-9, 60, 30, 1-7/4-9/6-12
  
• William & Mary: 21-10, 12-6, 57, 105, 2-0/3-3/6-7

So there you have it. Twelve teams for, at most, six spots.

Who ya got?