I’m impressed with Oregon’s rise to #1 in the current edition of the RPI. The five losses they’ve taken have all been to roughly top-100 teams on the road, which is a help, of course. It is interesting, though, that in a Pac-12 full of NCAA-quality teams, none of Oregon’s conference foes has been strong enough to make their visit to Eugene a Tier A game as defined by KenPom (roughly equivalent to a top-25 opponent at home). Alas, the Arizona-Arizona State pair is the one that Oregon-Oregon State don’t get to host in Pac-12 play, so that matchup goes unfulfilled. Oregon’s win in Tucson will be their best of the season all the way to Selection Sunday.
Now for the EBS. Things are pretty darn steady after this week’s mid-week results. Saint Joseph’s strong 84-66 showing at George Washington pushed them up from a 9 to a 7. They were at an 11 last Friday (crushing Fordham on the road wasn’t huge in a resume-building sense, but it bolstered the Hawks’ KenPom ranking). Indiana knocking off Iowa at home brought their RPI close to the top 50, improving their seed position to an 8 from a 10. Syracuse’s double-digit home win against Florida State was a bellwether game in the middle of the ACC, bringing the Orange up to the Seminoles on the 9 line after starting the week as an 11. Seton Hall is this edition’s biggest tumbler, dropping to a 10 from a 7 after failing to defend its home court against Butler, a fellow Big East borderline at-large team. And Tulsa earns its first at-large consideration after shooting the lights out to get by SMU in Dallas.
Full seed listings after the jump.
1s: Villanova, Oklahoma, Virginia, Iowa
2s: Kansas, Maryland, Oregon, North Carolina
3s: West Virginia, Michigan State, Miami-Florida, Kentucky
4s: Xavier, Iowa State, Duke, Purdue
5s: Texas A&M, USC, Wichita State, Arizona
6s: Texas, Dayton, Florida, Baylor
7s: Notre Dame, Utah, Saint Joseph’s, Connecticut
8s: California, South Carolina, Valparaiso, Indiana
9s: Florida State, Syracuse, Monmouth, VCU
10s: Saint Mary’s, Colorado, Seton Hall, Providence
11s: Tulsa, Butler, Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, Cincinnati
12s: Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, Arkansas-Little Rock, Texas Tech, Michigan, Akron
13s: Stony Brook, San Diego State, Chattanooga, William & Mary
14s: Yale, South Dakota State, Hawaii, UAB
15s: Belmont, New Mexico State, Stephen F. Austin, Weber State
16s: UNC Asheville, North Florida, Navy, Southern, Wagner, Norfolk State
sportsmanteaux 