NCAA Basketball: Obi Toppin, Loyola-Chicago week’s top mid-major performers

Mid-Major Bracketology

Three of the top five teams in the country are mid-majors. I know it will be essentially meaningless when it comes to their actual seed line come tournament time, but the AP Poll voters have Gonzaga, San Diego State, and now Dayton all in the top five teams in the country. That’s a majority for the little guys! (Let them have their moment and we can discuss the fact that none of these three, especially Gonzaga, are really small programs at all).

As for the teams who aren’t guaranteed a spot in the Big Dance just yet, despite the good losses this week Northern Iowa and Rhode Island seem to be inching closer and closer to lock status. I think at this point, the max number of teams in for the A10 is going to be four, down from the peak status of six a few weeks ago. VCU and Richmond both need a little more to clinch their spots, although the Spiders 77-59 win in the crosstown matchup on Saturday was a huge step in the right direction.

The WCC very well might get three teams in because BYU and Saint Mary’s would be in the field by a couple of lines if the tournament started today.  ETSU and Utah State (after a solid win at Colorado State) seem to be in a good position at the moment as well. Both could lose to good teams in their conference tournament. Utah State is almost guaranteed not to win theirs thanks to San Diego State, but winning out should be the goal for ETSU.

Teams like Liberty, Yale, and even UNC G are hanging around the cutline. But those teams should just bank on winning their conference bid to get in at this point.