When I'm putting a bracket together, I usually find that the teams that pretty much everybody thinks are good actually are, but there are always a few that don't measure up to the hype, even this late in the season.

Here is a look at a handful of teams that are in or near the rankings, but have tournament resumes that are still lacking.

The Badgers went into Monday's bracket with a record of 0-3 against the top 50 teams in the RPI, losing at Creighton, North Carolina and Purdue. Teams without top 50 RPI win rarely even make the tournament, let alone get seeded highly. They haven't lost to anyone outside that group, but they missed their chances to pick up higher quality wins in non-conference play. Unfortunately, unlike the Big East for Xavier, the Big Ten won't provide many chances to pick some up in the league.

Wisconsin did win at Indiana, which figures to be one of the more confounding teams that the selection committee will deal with. For now, the Hoosiers are a middle of the bracket team and the only team in the bracket that the Badgers have beaten. That win may look better as the season goes on, but right now, they can't count on that. The Badgers only play Michigan State once and that game will be in East Lansing. The Spartans have also been disappointing though, so it's hard to say what a win there will mean to the selection committee.

Minnesota and Maryland are the only Big Ten teams comfortably into the top 50 of the RPI that are left on the Badgers schedule.

If Wisconsin contends for the Big Ten regular season title, as expected, I'm sure their profile will measure up well for a seed befitting a team ranked in the mid-teens. That profile is quite there yet though.

I have to admit that when I looked at the AP Top 25, which I rarely do since they don't have a bearing on the selection process, I was stunned to find Kansas State in there. When I put together the bracket this morning, the Wildcats were not on the list of teams under consideration.

Kansas State has beaten absolutely nobody of note. The Wildcats are 0-4 against the top 100 teams in the RPI. They are close losses, but still losses. Their best win is Nebraska-Omaha. They also beat current Horizon League leader Wisconsin-Green Bay. When your best wins are against teams with dashes in their names at this point of the season, you probably shouldn't be ranked.

Poll voters don't put much thought into voting sometimes. They see a power conference team with a gaudy record and rank them. It is pretty obvious that Kansas State benefitted from that. I suspect that when the rankings are released this week, the Wildcats won't be there.

St. Mary's tournament resume is largely going to be based on how the Gaels perform against Gonzaga. So far, not so good, after the Zags trounced them at home over the weekend.

The Gaels played a couple of decent teams outside the league, winning at Dayton and beating Mountain West leader Nevada at home. However, they also lost at home to UT Arlington, and that loss will look worse as the season wears on.

Dayton may or may not make the tournament as an at-large team. Right now, they are a middle of the bracket team. Nevada will only make the NCAA tournament if it wins the Mountain West's automatic bid.

That's not much to hang your hat on. The West Coast conference, aside from the games against Gonzaga, only provides opportunities to damage your resume by adding bad losses to it. If the Gaels win the rest of their games, but end up 0-3 against the Bulldogs, they won't get a seed that would indicate that they are a top 25 team. A couple of other losses beyond that and making the tournament at all could be in doubt.

The Trojans got off to a great start, winning their first 14 games. The problem for them is that there wasn't much quality in those wins. SMU is the best team they have beaten. That's a nice team and will probably make the tournament, but so far, that's it. USC also won at Texas A&M, which was supposed to be one of the better teams in the SEC after Kentucky, but they have disappointed.

USC suffered its first loss in a blowout at Oregon at the end of December. Losing to Oregon, even ugly, isn't the end of the world though. Losing at home to Cal hurts, even though the Bears are in the latest bracket. Getting crushed at Utah is particularly bad.

The win over SMU is enough to get the Trojans into the middle of the bracket for now, but there is nothing here yet to indicate that this is a team that should be in the top 25. The Trojans have chances to earn that ranking in the next week and a half when Arizona and UCLA visit.

The Gamecocks were not ranked, but are close enough that they may be when this week's rankings are released. They should not be though.

South Carolina would be another power conference team that benefits from a gaudy record and very little to back it up. The Gamecocks best wins are Georgia and Mississippi in conference play. Neither of those teams are in my bracket. Ole Miss isn't even on the consideration list.

The Gamecocks lost to Seton Hall and in-state rival Clemson, the only two teams that they have played that are in my bracket. They also got drilled at Memphis.

South Carolina's best player, Sindarius Thornwell was suspended for a month and missed all three of the Gamecock's losses. That is unfortunate, but the committee can't assume they would have won if he played. There can be some consideration given with regard to seeding, but they have to earn selection regardless.

South Carolina is in the bracket, but barely so, which says more about the quality of the teams at the bottom that it does South Carolina.

The Musketeers do reasonably well in the computer rankings and were ranked 15th in the most recent polls, but there isn't much to back that up yet. Xavier's best win, in RPI terms, is over Wake Forest, which isn't even on my list of teams under consideration for a spot in the bracket yet. The Musketeers have a win over Clemson in Orlando, which is their only win over a team in the bracket. They avoided playing a high number of 200+ RPI teams in non-conference play, which is partly why their ratings are so high. Xavier's loss at Colorado isn't great, but if that is the worst loss at the end of the year, it won't be a problem.

What the Musketeers lack is quality wins. They have had some chances, all on the road, but fell short at Baylor, Villanova and Butler -- the latter two in the past week.

Xavier will get more chances. That is the advantage of being in the Big East. Getting Myles Davis back into the fold should help them take advantage of them. Creighton visits Xavier on Monday and there will be a return trip to Omaha in February. The Musketeers will also host rematches with Villanova and Butler, and travel to archrival Cincinnati in a non-conference game. Xavier will have plenty of chances to live up to their rankings. They just haven't done it yet.