Happy March, Billie heads! As the weather turns slightly less terrible and the Madness approaches, we take our first look at the prospects of the Never Been Kissed — those schools who have not been to the Sweet Sixteen in the many years since the NCAA expanded the field to 64 back in 1985. Being the year we all wore masks for ten months, 2020 yielded no graduates from the NBK ranks. Houston and Virginia Tech graduated in 2019, South Carolina busted through in 2017 all the way to the Final Four, and Dayton back in 2014.

This year’s crop is led once again by big conference hopefuls Creighton, Colorado, and Rutgers. All three look to be safely in the field heading into the final two weeks, though the Bluejays will be the only team favored to make the tournament’s second weekend. The Bonnies lead the A-10 contingent and the Mountain West vies for NBK conference of the year with Utah St, Boise St, and Colorado St all in contention.

Your Saint Louis University Billikens come in seventh in these initial rankings, but are solidly out of the NCAA picture as it stands. The Bills will need a win against UMass on Monday and a clean sweep of their A-10 games this week in Richmond just to have a chance. That would put them in the A-10 tournament championship game on Selection Sunday and give the committee something to think about.

Data courtesy Kenpom.com and ESPN Bracketology, which is quite fancy this year.