February is upon us, with March not far off. So it’s time for our semi-occasional regular look at the schools that have never made the second weekend of the NCAA tournament, never made it to the Sweet Sixteen, never been kissed (NBK). We started the NBK several years ago to track Saint Louis University’s progress or lack of same toward making their first ever Sweet Sixteen. With tonight’s loss to Duquesne, the Billies have a telescopic view of the bubble and are therefore not currently in contention. The dry spell seems destined to continue.

We’ll start ranking this year’s NBK simply by KenPom rank in Adjusted Efficiency. Colorado and Creighton sit in the Top 20 in KenPom but only project to 6-seeds per Joey Brackets, putting their odds firmly against making the second weekend. Of the automatic qualifiers, Yale leads the pack in the Ivy. Frankly, our methodology needs to be looked at if we are including a school like SMU – 6th in the American and seemingly going nowhere. We’ll need to tighten things up as Selection Sunday approaches. Liberty has the best current projected seed among the AQs at 11, and Vermont has been an NBK stalwart for years. Go Catamounts. As for Liberty…give me the other.