With a 60-55 win over Illinois, the Michigan Wolverines appear to have locked up a 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament invite. But, with a slew of upsets and bubble teams that continue to win nothing is guaranteed just yet. A surprising win by Alabama over Georgia pushes the Tide closer to a Tournament invite. Clemson won, and won big. Then in the Big Ten Michigan State dismembered Purdue and buried its body under the Conseco hard wood like they were Jimmy Hoffa. Then there's the worst basketball game ever played where Penn State beat Wisconsin 36-33. I'll repeat that 36-33, in two halves. That's horrible. That's not basketball. That might as well be rec league soccer. In Chad. In 1983.
The point is, Michigan has company on the bubble. A lot of it. So it can't hurt to take a look at Michigan's recently polished NCAA Tournament resume.
Overall Record: 20-12
Record Against D1 Opponents: 19-12
Conference Record [Including BTT]: 10-9
Strength of Schedule: 17
RPI [W/O Illinois Win]: 56
Good Wins [RPI]: Harvard [34]; Illinois [39]; Michigan St. [47] (twice); Penn St. [55] (twice); Oakland [52]; @ Clemson [61]
Bad losses [RPI]: @ Indiana [182]; @ Northwestern [91]
Record against Top 50 RPI: 4-8
Record against Top 100 RPI: 10-11
Performance in last Ten Games: 7-3 (losses by a total of 12 points) [9-3 in last 12]
Overall Michigan has 4 total top 50 scalps, two of which are Michigan State's (which just annihilated Purdue), so there is a decent record against the top 50. Importantly, they're just a game below .500 in 21 games against the RPI top 100. The big bonus is that Illinois bubble has to burst before Michigan's is even in jeopardy. The biggest thing to consider is that many of the teams that are pushing bubble runs right now trail Michigan in RPI (Alabama and Clemson for instance) and SOS.
At this point, Michigan looks like it's punched it's ticket to the Big Dance for the second time in three years.