This is Syracuse forward/center Arinze Onuaku at the free throw line in last night's NIT game against UMass:

Did Onuaku think he was standing at the top of the key or something? Onuaku shot 44% from the line this season, but he actually managed to go 2-for-4 last night, boosting his average in the final game of the season. Fan IQ is wondering how Memphis coach John Calipari failed to land Onuaku.

Syracuse led by 22 in the second half last night before blowing the game to UMass. Free throw shooting was far from the only reason, but doesn't it seem like Syracuse has been terrible at shooting free throws for 30 years?

What? You didn't know the NIT announced their bids tonight as well? They were. If you were a fan of a bubble team that didn't make it, now is the chance to at least make a good showing that you were the most deserving team left out of the NCAA Tournament.

#1 seeds: Arizona State, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Syracuse
#2 seeds: Florida, Illinois State, Ole Miss, UMass
#3 seeds: Creighton, Florida State, Dayton, Nebraska
#4 seeds: Minnesota, Cal, SIU, VCU
#5 seeds: Oklahoma State, Maryland, New Mexico, UAB
#6 seeds: Rhode Island, Akron, Cleveland State, Charlotte
#7 seeds: San Diego State, Stephen F. Austin, Utah State, UC-Santa Barbara
#8 seeds: Alabama State, Robert Morris, Morgan State, UNC-Asheville

Not much else to say. This is as big an indictment of how weak the bubble really was when you look at this list. Only a couple of these teams have any sort of argument that they were screwed by the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse folded. They fell apart. Collapsed. Gave up. Whatever you want to call it. Syracuse was in a position to punch its own ticket to the NCAA Tournament against Villanova and fell apart. They ended up being blown out 82-63.

The Orange raced out to a strong start, but Villanova finished the half strong -- pulling to within 1 point before the half ended. It was tight for part of the second half, but Villanova began hitting more shots -- especially Stokes and Reynolds from outside. Rather than tighten up the defense, the Syracuse players began to hang their heads. They just began rushing shots, only trying to score.

Syracuse will miss the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year. It is only the second time under Jim Boeheim that they have missed the NCAA in consecutive years.

Villanova is close to getting in the NCAA Tournament. They aren't a lock. They don't necessarily need to beat Georgetown on Thursday, but they have to look competitive. A blowout loss, like the one they handed Syracuse would hurt their perception.

I complained about it last year, so I'll spare everyone the rant on how the Big East pretty much puts everyone on their All-Big East squads. Seriously? 11 players on the 1st team, 10 on the 2nd team, and there was still a need for 5 more on "honorable mention?

Fine. Here's my All-Big East team with an eye to a real team:

• A.J. Price, Guard, UConn
• Kyle McAlarney, Guard, Notre Dame
• Roy Hibbert, Center, Georgetown
• David Padgett, Forward, Louisville
• Luke Harangody, Forward, Notre Dame

I feel somewhat guilty for not having a small forward on the squad, so what the heck, let's add a 6th:

• Sam Young, Forward, Pitt

As for an All-Big East rookie squad, again it isn't too hard to limit it to just five:

• DeJuan Blair, C-F, Pitt
• Donte' Green, F, Syracuse
• Austin Freeman, F, Georgetown
• Dominique Jones, G, South Florida
• Jonny Flynn, G, Syracuse

The Big East individual awards had little that surprised. And little to disagree -- though I do on "Coach of the Year." The awards below are my views on it, with a couple other awards added.

It's early march, which means it's time for us to hang on every word spoken by Joe Lunardi, the ESPN bracketologist who has carved out his own niche as the world's foremost authority on which teams are getting into the NCAA Tournament and which teams will be left out.

Lunardi is the guru of the Bubble, so what Lunardi said on ESPN Radio today was particularly interesting. Explaining why he wouldn't want to expand the Tournament field beyond 65 teams, Lunardi said, "The bubble is pretty bad."

Lunardi hasn't updated his bracket with the weekend's action, but going into the weekend he listed Arkansas, Arizona State, Virginia Tech and Maryland as the last four teams in, with Florida, Syracuse, Saint Joseph's and Western Kentucky as the last four out.

Fans of those eight teams won't want to hear that the bubble is bad, but Lunardi is basically right: The bubble teams aren't particularly good basketball teams, certainly not good enough that it's realistic to think they could win six straight games to win the title. So while the bubble teams are the ones that garner the most attention at this time of year, the bubble really isn't very good. And expanding the field would just make the bubble worse.

Syracuse has been trying to keep its faint NCAA Tournament hopes alive. It took a bigger step towards at least being outraged if it is left out, with the 87-72 win over Marquette.

The primary weapons for Syracuse -- Donte Greene, Paul Harris and Jonny Flynn -- had their typically strong offensive game with a combined 56 points. This time they were joined solid inside play center Arinze Onuaku and forward Kris Ongeneat were able to put in 23 points.

Marquette played tight for most of the first half, but Syracuse busted it open in the second half. with a 51 point outburst on 69% shooting. The Golden Eagles became increasingly frustrated as they were unable to make defensive stops.

The frustration by Marquette, surprisingly led to several physical outbursts at Syracuse players. Dominic James put a fist into the chest of Ongeneat about halfway through the second half. Dan Fitzgerald tangled himself up with Ongeneat after missing a 3 and trying to go over Ongeneat's back to get the ball away. Then with under a minute left and the game well out of reach, Dwight Burke got into it with a hard foul on Rick Jackson.

Marquette's reaction seemed strange for a team heading to the NCAA Tournament and facing a desperate team that was at home in the season finale.

Syracuse isn't in the NCAA yet. They need at least one, probably two wins in the Big East Tournament to be in better shape for an NCAA Tournament bid.

Syracuse was up 11 at home with a little over 3:30 to go. Pitt had just used its second last timeout. Syracuse had this game cold. Pitt had fallen behind steadily in this game. The Orange offense was clicking and Pitt wasn't showing any ability to stop them. Then Syracuse executed a perfect team collapse from the players down to the hall of fame coach to lose 82-77.

Pitt's point guard Levance Field s-- shooting 2-9 in the game -- attacked the basket and drew a foul from Center Arinze Onuaku. Fields hit both free throws. Onuaku then missed inside and Pitt ran. The ball came out to a trailing Gilbert Brown who stopped and hit a 3 pointer. Brown's first 3-pointer since January. Remarkably, Syracuse then committed a turnover right under their own basket which Pitt converted to a quick and easy lay-up. Suddenly it was a 4 point game in a little over a minute.

When Syracuse lost badly to South Florida on Wednesday, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that the Orange were done with NCAA Tournament dreams. The horrible loss to the last place team in the Big East, a 3-point home win over St. Joe's being the best non-con win, and a rather unremarkable conference and overall record just made them seemed prime for a return to the NIT.

That was before they came out and beat Georgetown 77-70. It was not nearly that close. The Orange came out hot and going straight at Roy Hibbert. Arinze Onuaku was able to more than hold his own against Hibbert. Georgetown was incredibly sloppy and careless with the ball. Turning the ball over 10 times in the first half. Every time, Syracuse capitalized on the turnovers. By halftime the Orange led by 16.

Most of the second half Syracuse just maintained the lead. Paul Harris was outstanding almost the entire game for Syracuse. He found his shot and continually went to the basket to draw fouls in this game. For Georgetown, Jonathan Wallace scored 11 of his 26 points in the final 1:24 to make the game cosmetic.

Syracuse finally notches an upper-tier conference win, and now gives them a better chance to go at least 9-9 in the Big East. They have games remaining at Louisville and Notre Dame and home games with Pitt and Marquette. They probably need at least 2-2 in those games (plus taking care of Seton Hall) to move from being a borderline Tournament team to being in

Rivalry game. Both teams with limited benches. UConn managed to make just a couple more plays to escape from Syracuse with a 63-61 win.

Syracuse, like other teams who have fallen to the Huskies in the past couple weeks, found itself having to fight for every basket inside. Hasheem Thabeet had 7 blocks and by the second half completely intimidated the Orange players from taking normal inside. Instead, they would fade, step-back or try to add more arc to their shots to keep Thabeet from getting a hand on it. The number of shots he changed, just by being present was impressive. That allowed Jeff Adrien to clean-up the missed shots.

UConn also stunned everyone with a 2-3 zone defense rather than their usual man-to-man defense. This allowed the Huskies to conserve some energy on defense, but it was surprising how effective it was. The Huskies briefly tried it against Pitt in their previous game, but Pitt went right through them nailing shots in the soft spots. The Orange didn't.

Syracuse, once again, was the Jonny Flynn-Paul Harris show. Flynn had 20 points and Harris 24. The rest of the team had 17 on 6-28 shooting.

The game was back and forth the entire way. UConn opened up a 7 point lead late, but Syracuse nearly came all the way back with a late run in the final couple minutes. They just didn't have enough time.

This was UConn's sixth straight win and the Huskies look like they are right there with Louisville and Notre Dame for the second best team in the Big East.

For a team that only has 6 man rotation, the Orange have remained true to their offensive style. Running, getting up the court and taking lots of possessions. The 2-3 zone of Syracuse has served them well, in that it allows them to conserve some energy on the defensive end. Given the inconsistent offensive performance by Villanova in their slide, this worked out well as Syracuse got a conference road win, 87-73.

Both teams drove to the basket, but Syracuse just couldn't miss. The Orange were 5-11 on 3s and 22-33 elsewhere on the court (68.6% eFG%). Four Syracuse players scored in double digits with Paul Harris scoring 30 and Jonny Flynn adding 22.

The Orange have gotten to 6-4 in the Big East, after looking like they were doomed following the gutwrenching OT loss at Georgetown. Instead, they have won 3 straight. The concern for the rest of the season, though, is how they can maintain this. Three starters played at least 39 minutes and a 4th played 36 minutes today. They have two stretches in the final 8 games where they play 3 games in 6 days and 3 in 7 days. As the number of bodies have fallen, Syracuse has 4 players averaging over 30 minutes per game, and in the recent stretch are nearing 40 minutes per game.That has to take a toll on a very young team.

For Villanova, they have dropped 4 straight and are 3-6 in the Big East and have not looked good in their games for more than brief stretches. Forget about the NCAA Tournament, they are now concerned with making the Big East Tournament.