Duke now angling for No. 1 seed

The bubble is shrinking, and shrinking fast

Originally Published: February 26, 2010
By Joe Lunardi | Special to
Robbie HummelAP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)As Purdue waves goodbye to Robbie Hummel, will it also lose a No. 1 seed?

Welcome to the new, expanded edition of Joe Lunardi's Rundown, featuring his latest bracket breakthrough, Tournament Odds.

How is it different from Bracketology? With Bracketology, Lunardi tells you how the bracket looks on that specific day.

With Tournament Odds, Lunardi tells you how the bracket is likely to look come Selection Sunday, by comparing current teams with those in his extensive database of prior seasons.

The Race for the Top

The issue today is Robbie Hummel's season-ending injury and its eventual impact on Purdue. What the committee should and will do in this case is conduct a separate evaluation of the Boilermakers from this point forward. It's not that Purdue's great work up to now will be ignored, but that the committee must answer the very difficult question of whether or not the Boilers are one of the "four best teams" without Hummel.

The Tourney Odds program, with a little help from yours truly, is just beginning to reflect Purdue's new reality.

To see the rest of Joe Lunardi's Rundown and Odds report, you must be an ESPN Insider.

Joe Lunardi | email

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