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Message: [QUOTE="bballnut90, post: 3451148, member: 2117"] I'd put Northwestern on the 2 line. If you look at the season in a nutshell and forget UCONN has been to 12 straight Final Fours and starts four top 5 recruits, NW and Maryland are far more tested and proven than Connecticut due to the strength of the Big Ten this year. The committee relies heavily on RPI rankings and looks at wins and records against Top 25 and Top 50 RPI teams. UCONN's only wins are against RPI 21 and 22 Ohio State and DePaul. Their top 50 wins also include against UCF 2x (39) and Virginia (45). Their losses are to the top 3 teams but UCONN lost by 16-18 in all 3. They have no bad losses but no big wins either in the eyes of the committee. Maryland has beat top 10 RPI teams in Iowa and NW, plus Indiana and Ohio State both twice. 6 top 25 wins. Expand it to top 50 and you have wins over Rutgers, Michigan (2), Purdue and James Madison. That's 11 top 50 wins. Their losses are to 3 teams in the top 10 RPI, and #20. Losses are worse than UCONN's but their wins are far better. Northwestern has 8 wins right now over top 50 teams, but only has 1 top 10 win over Maryland. A win today will further boost their resume. They only have 3 losses, both top 10 teams and to DePaul. If they win out, they'll likely add 2 more wins against top 10 RPI teams (Iowa and MD), plus have the Ohio State win on Thurs and it's a 1 seed worthy resume IMO. Losses are slightly worse, but their wins are far better than UCONN's, especially if they win the Big Ten tournament. I think everyone including myself has been sleeping on NW since no one expected them to be in contention for a #1 seed, but based on how the committee prioritizes RPI criteria, they're absolutely deserving to be in the conversation. [/QUOTE]

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