Editor's note: Teams preceded by their conference name are expected to win their league's automatic bid.

March 22/Norfolk, Va.
(1) LSU vs. (16) NEC/St. Francis (Pa.)
(8) DePaul vs. (9) WCC/Pepperdine
March 23/Norman, Okla.
(5) Boston College vs. (12) Oklahoma
(4) Mississippi State vs. (13) MID-CONTINENT/Western Illinois
March 22/Stanford, Calif.
(3) Stanford vs. (14) OVC/Austin Peay
(6) Virginia Tech vs. (11) Tulane
March 23/Lubbock, Texas
(7) George Washington vs. (10) Florida International
(2) Texas Tech vs. (15) MEAC/Hampton

TEAM	THUMBS UP	THUMBS DOWN
1. LSU	Six wins vs. RPI Top 25	No. 31 in SOS
2. Texas Tech	No. 5 in RPI	Two losses in last 7 games
3. Stanford	11-1 conference record	No. 57 in SOS
4. Mississippi State	10-6 vs. RPI Top 100	2-6 vs. RPI Top 25
5. Boston College	8-4 on road/neutral sites	1-4 vs. RPI Top 25
6. Virginia Tech	8-4 conference record	3-5 vs. RPI Top 50
7. George Washington	11-1 conference record	2-4 vs. RPI Top 50
8. DePaul	9-4 vs. RPI Top 100	Three sub-100 RPI losses
9. Pepperdine	No. 35 in RPI	Lost to UConn by 61
10. Florida International	8-2 in last 10 games	Two sub-150 RPI losses
11. Tulane	6-4 on road/neutral	2-5 vs. RPI Top 100
12. Oklahoma	No. 6 in SOS	4-6 vs. RPI Top 100
Note: SOS refers to strength of schedule; CollegeRPI.com used as reference; teams expected to be invited solely by virtue of their conference's automatic bid are not included in this analysis.

Charlie Creme was a writer and editor at Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook for 11 years. Click here to send him a question about his bracket projections.