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Counting automatic bids and teams virtually locked for the NCAA tournament, barring a late season meltdown, there are currently 17 teams vying for 8 at large selections. RPI rankings aside, there is very little to separate the teams. Some schools do have the benefit of head to head wins over teams they are battling for at large selection. I will rank the teams from 1-17 (most likely - least likely). Argue away:

 1. UNLV

 2. Massachusetts

 3. Miami (Fla)

 4. Wake Forest

 5. Ohio State

 6. Houston

 7. Florida

 8. Western Kentucky

 9. Arkansas

10. Rhode Island

11. Villanova

12. Alabama Birmingham

13. Akron

14. George Mason

15. Kentucky

16. Illinois State

17. New Mexico

The teams with the best argument to be ranked in the top eight, in my opinion, are Villanova and George Mason. Kentucky has played good basketball once SEC play began, but has to overcome a horrendous non-league record. I recognize the Cats have had to overcome some early season injuries, but their body of work comes up short. They do have time to finish the season strong and make a statement in the SEC Tournament. Villanova can point to two close losses at the hands of terrible officials calls late in ball games.

Many deserving candidates but only room for five on my All-America list:

G  Derrick Rose  Memphis, G  DJ Augustine  Texas, C  Kevin Love  UCLA, F  Tyler Hansborough  North Carolina and F Michael Beasley Kansas State.

There aren't too many arguments that the front line I selected won't be the real thing. The backcourt is subject to debate. Among those having a strong case for consideration are Eric Gordon (Indiana), Demarcus Nelson (Duke), Darren Collison (UCLA), OJ Mayo (USC), Chris Douglas-Roberts (Memphis) and Chalmers or Rush of Kansas.

Still have a fair number of conference games to thin out the field. Roy Hibbert, Brook Lopez, DJ White and Ryan Andersen all have time to possibly crack the 1st team in the remote possibility that Love or Beasley fall off the planet.