New Mexico By Zach

Congrats to the Lobos, who played an excellent game to get the automatic berth from the Mountain West conference. They did two things in my mind. First, they established that as good at Andrew Bogut is (and he's awesome), the Utes really need other players to step up. Beyond 14 points from Bryant Markson, no one else scored in double figures for Utah. Bogut had a good, not great game, and it'll be interesting to see where they get seeded. That more than anything else might determine how far they can go.

New Mexico, on the other hand, has shot up to near the top of my list of potential sleepers in the tournament. Danny Granger was a monster, dominating the inside on both ends. If Bogut struggled with him, it might be hard for some other teams to handle him, especially since he can go inside and outside.

I don't think the Lobos are a fluke. Yes, they had a tough stretch earlier this year, but that's without Granger. With him in the lineup, they were 26-3 with their only losses @Oregon, home against Wake Forest, and @Wyoming. They beat Utah twice (once at home, once on a neutral court). If they get going, they could be dangerous, especially as a 10-12 seed.

Tonight seems to be a bunch about teams that aren't yet in the tournament making serious runs at getting in against teams that are already in. Sometimes, like Memphis, they come up short. But in the case of New Mexico, they took themselves off the bubble in the best possible way...getting the automatic berth.