By Mel Greenberg
As the Guru's keyboard submits the characters creating the readibility of this post, those people who quickly jumped off the Rutgers bandwagon following Tuesday night's blowout loss at Connecticut are having second thoughts after having declared Maryland as the recipient of the projected NCAA No. 1 seed that had been in possession of the Scarlet Knights.
While coach C. Vivian Stringer's team enjoyed the role of spectators in the first day of Big East action in Hartford, Rutgers was given some help elsewhere down in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Duke upset Maryland, costing the Terrapins any shot at a No. 1 and flipping the projection back in possession of the Scarlet Knights. An advance to the Big East title game, mostly likely against UConn a third time this season appears to be all that's needed for Rutgers to be named atop one of the four NCAA regions when the 64-team field is annoinced Monday night.
Stringer's bunch gets into the fray in Sunday's quarterfinals when Rutgers plays Louisville. A potential semifinal game against third-seed West Virginia Monday night would negate the earlier loss to the Mountaineers in Morgantown, W. Va.
North Carolina will be in the No. 1 seed discussion by beating Duke, Sunday, for the conference championship, while the Blue Devils strengthened a case for a No. 2 without regard to a second straight upset.
The other big game of note is in the Southeastern Conference where LSU and Tennessee will meet in the championship. Tennessee is looking for revenge after blowing a 19-point lead.A Tigers win also puts LSU into the top seed discussion and this topic will be re-addressed Sunday night when all the results are in.
Rutgers fans have interest in the Big Ten championship where Illinois, under new coach and former Scarlet Knights' associate head coach Jolette Law, is in the title game against Purdue.
A ninth seed has never advanced this far in the conference, once again saying something about the competition this year. Nevertheless, the Illinis might have gotten a shot at an at-large bid if they don't capture automatic bid that would come with a Big Ten title over Purdue.
Illinois' success put Michigan State and/or Minnesota at risk for at-large status once those teams get placed in comparisons among the bubble teams.
Meanwhile, Cornell's Ivy hopes were renewed with a win over Princeton, while Harvard lost at Yale, and Dartmouth won a close one at Brown, creating a three-way tie at the finish. Penn's upset of Columbia has, according to inference from the league web site, caused people with Ivy educations to spend several days figuring out how the NCAA representative will be chosen through a set of tie-breaking games Friday and Sunday at Columbia.
Here's a look at the other conference tournaments continuing into Sunday.
Atlantic Ten semifinals: Temple likely wraps up an at-large bid with a win over Dayton, considering the Owls tying George Washington for the regular season title. The Colonials are a lock no matter what happens against Xavier, which could gain at-large strength either with a win in the semifinals. The NCAA committee may also want to note that the Musketeers got stronger from mid-December with the addition of a few transfers, including forer Rutgers player Tudy Reed, who won the A-10's sixth player award
Big East quarterfinals: Pttt and Notre Dame, both NCAA bound, look to better their seeds by staying alive. DePaul, on the ropes, meets top-ranked Connecticut a week after a near-upset of the top-ranked Huskies in Illinois. Rutgers needs to take care of business against Louisville, which likely will land an NCAA bid win or lose Sunday. South Florida, fresh off an upset against Syracuse, which will still get an NCAA bid, looks to upend West Virignia.
Conference-USA championship. Top-seed UTEP helps other bubble teams by beating No. 2 SMU, which is one of those bubble teams.
Metro Atlantic championship. Top seed Marist certainly will give bubble teams a sigh of relief by beating second-seed Iona, which has no shot, otherwise, at NCAA field. Marist as a wrong loser would have the best case for at-large rescue status.
Northeast Conference semifinals. Only the winner of this tournament is getting a bid, which is through automatic qualifier status. Top-seed Quinnipiac meets No. 4 Long Island, while No.2 Robert Morris meets No. 6 Monmouth.
Pac-10 semifinals. No. 3 Arizona State and No. 2 California, both NCAA-bound, try to better their seed outlook, especially Cal, while top-ranked Stanford tries to hold serve on No. 5 UCLA. which eliminated Southern Cal's NCAA hopes in the quarterfinals.
Patriot semifinals: Top-seed American advanced against No. 5 Bucknell, which edged No.4 Army in overtime at the U.S. Military Academy. No. 2 Holy Cross meets No. 3 Lehigh. It's a one-bid league
Southern semifinals: Top-seed Chattanooga, with little hope of at-large rescue, goes against No. 5 College of Charleston, while No. 2 Western Carolina meets No. 6 Elon.
West Coast championship: Top-seed Gonzaga seeks automatic bid against No. 3 San Diego to become one of a handful of pure West teams in the NCAA field.
-- Mel
Philly.com discussions are intended to be civil, friendly conversations. Please treat other participants with respect and in a way that you would want to be treated. You are responsible for what you say. And please, stay on topic.
These boards are monitored by Philly.com staff. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us in our sole discretion and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. Personal attacks, especially on other board participants, are not permitted. We reserve the right to permanently block any user who violates these terms and conditions.