Every day, Sippin' on Purple will be taking an updated roundup and look at Northwestern's chances of making the NCAA Tournament. We promise not to jinx it.
Bracket matrix: 12.0 (up from 12.1 yesterday), fourth-to-last team in
Kenpom: 50 (down from 49 yesterday)
RPI: 49, down from 48 yesterday
Sagarin: 50, down from 49 yesterday
Big Ten standings: Seventh, guaranteed to play Minnesota in first round on Thursday (up from eighth on Friday)
In or out, consensus: in (barely)
Feeling: Can't wait for Thursday. We can say it a million times, but that's a must-win.
Bracketology round-up: Whole lotta people updating recently. Joe Lunardi has Northwestern in the tournament as a 13-seed in the First Four, playing Drexel, the fourth-to-last team in. (Note: for those confused, the First Four games are not played between any specific seeds - just the last four at-large bids. If those were somehow 14-seeds, they'd still play in the First Four.) Chris Dobbertean has almost the same thing - same seed, same opponent - but sees Northwestern as the third-to-last team in. Jerry Palm has Northwestern off the last four bubble as an 11 seed against Wichita State, but told Teddy Greenstein yesterday he thinks Northwestern needs to win twice in the BTT to be better than a 50-50 team. Andy Glockner of SI thinks Northwestern is the second-to-last team in and has Northwestern playing BYU in Dayton as an 11 seed. Mike Huguenin of Rivals has Northwestern as the last squad.
Never made the tourney: Won't have time for a video/post today, so I feel like pointing out that at least one team will be in after Western Illinois and South Dakota State earned a matchup in the finals of the Summit League.