Bracketologist Joe Lunardi Breaks Down Stanford's NCAA Tournament Resume

Over the weekend, the Stanford Cardinal had one of the biggest flips in the entire season. After a road win against the NC State Wolfpack, and a plethora of bubble teams going down, Stanford’s once farfetched hopes at their first March Madness in 12 years quickly turned into an achievable goal.

ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi currently has Stanford as his third team out of the NCAA tournament, just behind Indiana and Virginia Tech. They're able to reach out and grasp a berth in the tourney, but still have some work to do to get there. The Cardinal also squeaked by Virginia Tech earlier in the season with a 69-68 win in early January.

On Monday morning, we joined Lunardi's online press conference, where he expressed his thoughts on Stanford.

“I gotta tell you, I've never gone into the power conference cluster of games this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with this specific situation. And that is, at this moment, there are 316 teams with legitimate at-large resumes, and we have 37 spots. And that is forcing me, and I appear to be on a bit of an island here.

"I'm keeping Auburn in at 16 and 15 because they have the best wins. And because I'm having a great back and forth with Bruce Pearl, and I think we should keep it going for another day or two. But no, all kidding aside, Stanford has the next best wins. But they've also lost twice to Cal, a team that they're competing with and are rivals with. So, I'm having a hard time elevating Stanford ahead of Cal.

“But to actually take the last spot, I mean, Auburn's not going to make it. At the end of the day, someone is going to pass them or steal that bid. So I'm not going to have an ongoing fight with Bruce Pearl. But at the moment, if Stanford beats NC State in that game, they're going to take that spot on my board barring something really unusual. And I also think they're good enough.

“A couple of their losses are head scratchers, for sure, but I think Stanford is better than Auburn. I think they're better than SMU. They might be better than Santa Clara. And VCU? I think that's probably a wash. So they're good enough. And they're one of the few teams out of the field at the moment that has a very direct shot right in front of them.

"Because if they play, if they get past Pitt and they play NC State, they're going to be playing a team that is ahead of them and will help their resume, but isn't necessarily better than them right now. In fact, I think they're not better than them right now. So they have a great shot.”

Overall, Lunardi has many beliefs about Stanford. First, and most importantly, he believes the Cardinal controls their own fate. Two wins will almost certainly get them into the tournament in his view, which is an achievable goal.

He also believes that it could take just one win, but it would have to take a few things to go their way to make it work out. And third, he thinks that Stanford is one of the best teams on the bubble, and whether their resume shows it or not, the Cardinal are one of the best 37 at-large teams.

Stanford begins their ACC tournament quest on Tuesday, where they take on the Pitt Panthers, hoping to get one step closer to March Madness for the first time since 2013-14.

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