The man behind Bracketology

But while his vast knowledge of how and what will either get teams such as Virginia Tech off the NCAA Tournament bubble, or keep them squarely on it, is intriguing — “If they get in, they’re just going to squeak in,” — Lunardi easily extends his perspective to comment on the state of Division I basketball itself.

Among the topics he covered in a conference call this week:

The strength, or lack thereof, of this year’s NCAA Tournament pool » “I don’t think the field itself is overly weak. I think what might be giving that impression is it’s composed differently. Like, a New Mexico and a BYU are really good. A Xavier, a Richmond and a Temple are really good, and a UCLA and an Arizona aren’t, and a North Carolina isn’t. Indiana is not a factor. Louisville and Connecticut have struggled most of the year, or at least have been inconsistent. The brand-name quality of the field is off, but I don’t know that the overall quality of the field is especially off.”

ACC or Big East? » “Syracuse, Villanova, probably West Virginia would all win the ACC this year. I think they’re all better than Duke. I guess inversely, Duke is third or fourth in the Big East. If you want to go down in the middle of those leagues, there’s just a lot of sameness.”

Potential, or likely, expansion of the tournament » “This isn’t college football at the BCS level, where every year, two or three or however many teams can make a reasonably legitimate argument that given the opportunity on the field of play, they could be the last team standing. We leave good teams out the tournament right now, but we don’t leave teams out that can win six games.”

For or against expansion? » “My only wish is that they consider my sleeping habits over the six-week period when they make the decision because I lie awake at night dividing 65 from 66. Ninety-five from 96, to be quite honest, would be nothing short of a pain in the [expletive].”