Whether you are talking about the field of 65 or where a team stands in the Ratings Percentage Index, it is easy to get lost in the sea of numbers when March rolls around.
But as the Mid-American Conference Tournament looms in the near future, only the number two seems to matter at this point, the question being: Will two teams from the MAC make the big dance for the first time since 1999?
Weak years from some conferences like the Pac 10, combined with stellar records from MAC favorites like Western Michigan (22-4) and Kent State (20-6), have followers of the conference hopeful that two teams can sneak in and create havoc against major foes.
"I think Western has shown that it can play with a major conference team," Sporting News senior college basketball writer Mike DeCourcy said. "But I can't be 100 percent sure they're playing their best basketball right now.
"Sometimes you start to lose your legs or something in February, but then you get it back when the tournament starts," he said.
Wins against University of Southern California, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Arizona State put Western Michigan on the map nationally. The second-best record in the conference, paired with a Bracket Buster Saturday win against Creighton, has vaulted the Golden Flashes into contention for a tournament bid.
In an ideal world neither Kent State nor Western Michigan would spend Selection Sunday worrying about pairings, but that has not been the case in recent years.
The best-case scenario for the MAC is a final game at Gund Arena between the Golden Flashes and the Broncos with Kent State coming out on top, DeCourcy said.
"I think that Kent has reached a point where they really can't afford to lose any more games in the regular season," DeCourcy said. "The scenario I painted, in which the two teams played one another, Western is the more likely at-large team. The odds would be better for the MAC if it were Kent that won that game.
"Of course Western wouldn't like that much because they'd be the ones that have to sweat, but they're a better at-large candidate."
When the final eight teams head to Cleveland there will be dark horses in the mix that could shatter such a scenario.
Buffalo is a team with no seniors that usually does not have to worry about travel plans for Cleveland in the second weekend of March, but the Bulls have won 10 of 12 as they prepare for the conference tournament. The hot streak does not mean that the Bulls are about to start overlooking opponents, Buffalo coach Reggie Witherspoon said.
"We're not good enough where we're in a position to worry about who we're better than," Witherspoon said. "Our tournament is up for grabs, but I'd like to feel like we're right there."
Toledo is probably more of a viable favorite than a spoiler as the Rockets head to Cleveland, led by their all conference guards Keith Triplett, Sammy Villegas and Justin Ingram.
Toledo knocked off the vaunted Broncos Feb. 28, 93-84, and put itself in position for one of the three highly sought after first-round byes in the conference tournament.
Even preseason favorites at the bottom of the standings like Akron and Northern Illinois can take some solace in the fact that one win gets them to Cleveland with a chance to win the tournament and advance to postseason play.