Joe Lunardi Quotations

Recent history suggests they're in. When you win the championship of a top-10 RPI conference like the Mountain West, you're in.

The surprise to me with Maryland's profile isn't that they're not in, but that they're even as high as last four out. The bubble is really bad and most years I think they'd be eight or 10 spots lower than they are. Most years we're not talking about five or six from the Missouri Valley or two or three from the Colonial or eight or nine Big East teams. There's not a team on the bubble that doesn't have serious flaws.

It's up to Seton Hall, and it's not really up to Seton Hall. They're done playing. It's up to the ones chasing them. (The Big East) will either get in eight or nine, depending on Seton Hall.

He said, from a public relations perspective, all of the things you would script if you had a chance to script it -- and they didn't have a chance to script it.

I think ultimately, with six weeks to go before conference tournament week, a lot of these seeming inequities will even out. The Valley is more likely to get three than four. They are more likely to go down than they are to go up. The Big XII can only go up. The Pac-10 is probably going to get three, because frankly they're not that good, so they'll have to get over it.

It's crazy, isn't it? I'm really unbelievably ordinary.

They have plenty of road chances, but there's no reason to think they're suddenly going to become a good road team without their best player. No one would bet on it unless you're a blinded Terrapin fan.

I think the winner of this game clearly establishes itself as No. 2 in the Valley. To me, Northern Iowa is the best team and I think that will be clear at the end of the race.