10 | March | 2012 | The Daily Bama Blog

Sunday update: Alabama slipped one more spot in two RPI projections, but that dosn’t figure to mean much overall.

Both CBS and Yahoo say the Crimson Tide is No. 36 in today’s RPI heading into the 5 p.m. NCAA selection show.

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Original post: We’ve been writing about this for weeks now. Finally, these Ratings Percentage Index numbers have actual meaning as it relates to the NCAA tournament.

The selection show starts at 5 tomorrow evening and Alabama still looks pretty solid for landing its first tournament bid since 2006.

The latest CBS projection has Alabama at No. 35 in the RPI used by the tournament selection committee. The lowest rated team to make the field last season was Clemson at No. 55.

Alabama rose as high as No. 25 in the RPI after beating Arkansas and Mississippi State two weeks ago, but slowly dipped after losses to Ole Miss and Florida and a win over South Carolina.

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Alabama’s run in the SEC ended yesterday, but its NCAA destination is learned tomorrow. This was today’s print story:

NEW ORLEANS — Start at the low block, find the screen, shoot for the tie.

Trevor Lacey’s final play of Alabama’s SEC tournament game against Florida stuck to the script as the clock ticked toward elimination. The Charles Hankerson pass went straight into the open 3 and a shot at overtime.

All rim. No net.

The 66-63 quarterfinal loss to the Gators means Alabama must wait for Sunday’s release of NCAA pairings instead of a rematch with No. 1 Kentucky today. The Crimson Tide never led, but came an inch or two from a second chance.

“It felt good, looked good,” Lacey said. “It was just a little short.”

The miss capped the last of Alabama’s furious comebacks on a day Florida couldn’t shake the Tide. Montgomery native JaMychal Green, whose 22 points led all scorers, missed a potential game-tying free throw with 20.3 seconds left before two Kenny Boynton foul shots set up the final sequence.

But, as it’s been all season, the 3-point shot was unkind to the Tide.