Here is a quick update of how ASU looks in the eyes of the selection committee as of today. After a home sweep of the Oregon schools, we have greatly improved our record to 18-8. While 20 wins is often considered the gold standard of an NCAA Tournament team, this is Arizona State, not the University of Arizona. We will need 22 wins minimum to get a look from an at-large perspective.
Most of this information was garnered from RealTimeRPI.
Record = 18-8
Pac-10 Record = 8-5
RPI = 64
SOS = 76
Signature Wins (RPI 1-30) = None
Quality Wins (RPI 31-100) = San Diego State (RPI 40), Washington (RPI 52)
Bad Losses (RPI 101 or greater) = @UCLA (RPI 134)
"Quality" Losses (RPI 1-50) = Duke (RPI 2) Baylor (RPI 17), @BYU (RPI 22), California (RPI 24)
So what does it all mean?
Basically, ASU is on the outside looking in - but most of the pundits agree that the Sun Devils are starting to look better and better each week.
SBNation's Bracketology lists us on the "Next Four Out" section.
SI's Seth Davis notes that the we are one of the eight teams left off the media mock bracket:
Among the teams left out were: Cal, Siena, Virginia Tech, Minnesota, UAB, Arizona State, South Carolina and Mississippi State.
What, California is also being left out of the tournament? Why is that, Seth Davis?
In addition, the NCAA staff gave the committee make-believe results coming out of make-believe conference tournaments in order to simulate what happens during the actual selection weekend. This year, the NCAA tapped the following teams as conference tournament champions: Arizona (Pac-10), Wichita State (Missouri Valley), Tulsa (C-USA) and Iona (MAAC).
Wouldn't that just be terrible.
Lunardi left us entirely off the board for the ESPN version. All in all, we have a LOT of work to do in order to get into the NCAA Tournament. The first step would be to win in Tucson, something that is never easy to do. Lets get to work, gentlemen.