Japan Tobacco stock hit as $10 billion stake sale nears

TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Japan's government is set to launch the sale of part of its stake in Japan Tobacco , a move that hit the company's stock as investors sold ahead of the $10 billion offering.

Shares in the world's third-largest tobacco company tumbled as much as 5.9 percent on Wednesday, after Reuters reported that the sale would launch in the coming days.

The offering, the largest such deal since the U.S. Treasury's $20.7 billion sale of American International Group Inc shares in September, comes as Japanese equities hover near their highest levels in more than four years.

Japan Tobacco shares were down 3.2 percent at 2,832 yen in late morning, having fallen to a three-week low of 2,752 yen. The sale of a large block of shares usually prompts a fall in the price because it will increase the supply of publicly traded stock in the market.

Banks, including the four underwriters hired to manage the offering, met on Tuesday to iron out details of the deal, sources told Reuters.

Conditions for a sell-down in the government's stake in the $62 billion dollar company have improved, with Japan's Nikkei share average <.n225> up nearly 25 percent over the past three months to its highest level since September 2008.

Japan Tobacco shares rose about 21 percent over the same period, part of a broad market rally that began in mid-November after the calling of an early election that put Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in power a month later.

Abe has promised aggressive monetary and fiscal policies to tackle prolonged deflation.

APPETITE FOR BIG OFFERINGS

Japan's large and liquid stock market is used to digesting big offerings, such as the $8.5 billion IPO of Japan Airlines Co Ltd in September and a $2.3 billion follow-on deal by All Nippon Airways Co .

Last month U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP raised about $1.7 billion by selling shares in Japan's Aozora Bank Ltd .

Overall, equity issuance in Japan rose 16.8 percent in 2012 from a year earlier to $26.4 billion, driven by large IPOs and a flurry of activity that made it the busiest year for deals since 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed.

But the Japan Tobacco sale would be extraordinary.

The sale process is expected to be helped by both Tokyo's stock market rally of recent months and a promise by the company to buy back $3.1 billion of its shares.

"At the moment, appetite for Japanese stocks seems to be quiet smart," said a Tokyo trader, who did not want to be named.

JPMorgan Chase & Co , Daiwa Securities Group Inc , Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Mizuho Securities were hired last June as underwriters for the Japan Tobacco offering. Japan's biggest brokerage, Nomura Holdings Inc , was not selected as an underwriter after its involvement in an insider trading scandal.

The mandated banks invited other banks playing lesser roles in the sale at Tuesday's meeting, which was called to inform them of the planned schedule for the offering, the sources said.

(Reporting by Dominic Lau and Elzio Barreto; Editing by Michael Flaherty and Alex Richardson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-tobacco-stock-hit-10-billion-stake-sale-040038003--sector.html

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Russia, Arab League see chance for start to Syria dialogue

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and the Arab League see signs of hope that the rival sides in the Syrian civil war are willing to start talks to end nearly two years of conflict.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting Arab League head Nabil Elaraby said on Wednesday they were encouraged that both the Syrian government and the opposition had voiced readiness for dialogue.

"There have been signs of a positive tendency to start dialogue and both the government representatives and the opposition have begun speaking about this," Lavrov told a joint news conference with Elaraby.

"For now both sides still come up with preconditions but, according to our common view, once there is the key common readiness to start dialogue, then agreeing parameters for this process is just a matter of diplomatic art," he said.

Russia, a long-standing ally of President Bashar al-Assad and Syria's main arms supplier, has vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions that would out pressure on the Syrian government to cease violence in which some 70,000 people have been killed.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem is due in Moscow next Monday and Lavrov said the head of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, Moaz Alkhatib, would likely visit in March.

Alkhatib has said he is willing to negotiate with a deputy of Assad but the aim of such talks would be to find a way to allow the president safe passage into exile and set up a transitional government.

"We welcome the initiative by...Alkhatib who proposed to start a dialogue with the government and I think we will be able to reach this goal," Elaraby said after talks that also included foreign ministers from Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt.

The Cairo-based Arab League in November welcomed the creation of the Syrian National Coalition, but stopped short of giving it full recognition as the representative of the Syrian people.

"Russia has very good relations with the government in Damascus and we hope it will use that to convince them that this conflict can only be solved in a peaceful way," Elaraby added.

Russia, accused by the West and some Arab states of shielding Assad in the conflict, says calls for his departure should not be a precondition for peace talks and that Syrians should decide their own fate without foreign interference.

"It is very important that opposition leaders' readiness for dialogue is met with confirmation by the government that they are ready for dialogue too," Lavrov said.

"Now it's time for words to be confirmed by deeds."

In the course of the conflict, which started as a clampdown on street protests against the rule of Assad in March, 2011, before descending into civil war, the Arab League has also called on Moscow to halt arms sales to Damascus.

But Russia's export agency said earlier in February it would continue delivering weapons to the government army.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-arab-league-see-chance-start-syria-dialogue-115652640.html

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In info age, Belgian diamond heist is a throwback

Baggage carts make their way past a Helvetic Airways aircraft from which about $50 million worth of diamonds were stolen on the tarmac of Brussels international airport Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Eight armed and masked men made a hole in a security fence at the airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched the diamonds from the hold of the Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

Baggage carts make their way past a Helvetic Airways aircraft from which about $50 million worth of diamonds were stolen on the tarmac of Brussels international airport Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Eight armed and masked men made a hole in a security fence at the airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched the diamonds from the hold of the Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

LONDON (AP) ? At a time when many robberies take place at the click of a mouse, a group of jewel thieves has shown there's still a potential payoff for old-fashioned criminals willing to use disguises, planning and pluck to nab their loot.

Monday's theft of some $50 million worth of diamonds from the tarmac of Brussels' international airport is a "huge blip on the radar," said retired FBI agent Bill Rehder, who spent more than three decades on Los Angeles' bank robbery squad.

"You can almost liken it to the meteor that hit in Russia," he said, referring to the space rock which exploded last week over the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring hundreds. "These things happen so infrequently, but when they do happen it's a huge story."

It's also the type of story that complicates trends that have seen many crimes ? particularly those targeting banks ? jump from the world of brandished weapons and ransom notes to a universe of Trojan software and password-stealing computer programs.

In several Western countries, robberies have fallen as banks have installed bullet-proof glass, access-control vestibules and cash boxes rigged with paint or glue. Rehder said that, in the United States, tougher sentencing for criminals and societal changes have also led to a drop in bank robberies, which shrank from 8,516 in 2001 to 5,086 in 2011.

That trend has been echoed across the Atlantic, with the British Bankers' Association recording an even more dramatic fall in the number of raids, from 232 to 66 in the same period. Europe-wide figures also show a decrease in the number of bank robberies.

Meanwhile, cybercriminals have stepped in to steal some of the money their gun-wielding colleagues have left behind.

Global figures are hard to come by, but the amounts in play can be huge. In 2010, the FBI announced the unraveling of an online organization that had raked in roughly $70 million through a vast network of hackers, money mules, and front companies. Dozens were arrested across the U.S., Britain, and Eastern Europe.

ATM skimming, in which criminals surreptitiously rig cash machines with card readers and cameras to harvest debit card numbers, is another threat.

Doug Johnson, the vice president of risk management at the American Bankers Association, said that while the average U.S. bank robber could expect to make out with $3,000-4,000 from each theft, a skimmer made 10 times that amount with every successful hit.

Even as criminality mutates to fit the new realities of online finance and cashless wallets, spectacular thefts like the one in Belgium carry a special air of romance, Rehder said.

"This will catch the imagination of the public, no doubt about it," Rehder said, explaining that the use of bogus police vehicles to rob a plane right as it prepared to take off fit right in with the mystique of 1960s heist movies, released long before many of today's online criminals were born.

And security experts said that capers in the vein of "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968) or "Ocean's Eleven" (1960) ? elaborate schemes involving the surgical extraction of jewels, rare artwork, and cash ? were likely to keep popping up well into the information age.

"As long as we have hard currency and value in precious stones and precious metals, we're going to have people who will try to take it," Rehder said.

Or, as Johnson put it, "it's frankly difficult to create virtual robbery of diamonds."

___

Susan James in New York contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Raphael Satter covers cybersecurity for The Associated Press. He can reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-19-Belgium-Diamond%20Heist-Throwback%20Crime/id-fa93a9a65a6e4cdab72de50f9a4d70f4

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Max Domi scores three to lead London Knights to 8-1 win over Erie Otters

LONDON, Ont. - Max Domi recorded his third career hat trick as the London Knights hammered the Erie Otters 8-1 in OHL play Monday afternoon.

Domi, who has 34 goals and 41 assists in 54 games, added an assist for his first four-point outing since his OHL debut on Sept. 23, 2011.

Domi's current six-game point streak includes six goals and five assists.

Nikita Zadorov, Bo Horvat and Matt Rupert each had a goal and an assist for the Knights (41-12-4). Alex Broadhurst and Josh Anderson added singles.

J.P. Labardo scored the lone goal for Erie (17-33-8), which has dropped 11 of its past 13 games.

Anthony Stolarz made 24 saves for the Knights, who outshot Erie 18-3 in the third period and 39-25 overall. Otters starting goalie Oscar Dansk was pulled after allowing seven goals on 35 shots. Devin Williams played the final 11 minutes, allowing one goal on four shots.

London was 4-for-11 on the power play, while Erie went 1-for-6.

Source: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=656282

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"Impossible" for next-gen to match gaming PCs; Crysis 3 will push ...

The still unannounced next generation of consoles won?t be able to compete with today?s modern gaming PCs when it comes to raw power.

That?s according to Crytek boss Cevat Yerli, who told Eurogamer that: "Without breaking NDAs that are in place, realistically, from purely a price point perspective, it is impossible.

"It's impossible to package $2000-3000 into a mainstream, let's say $500 console. I'm not saying they are $500 consoles. They may launch a console at $2000, but the consumer pricing is usually much lower than that.

"So, given consumer pricing, and given the cost of production of a gamer PC and the amount of watt of power it needs, which is like a fridge, it's impossible."

Yerli also added that Crysis 3 will return to the template laid down by the original Crysis by pushing gaming PC tech to its limits.

The 2007 title was notorious for pushing the requirements needed to squeeze out its gorgeous maximum settings. However, 2011?s Crysis 2 reined this in as the studio focused on the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases.

PC gamers made their displeasure known ? and Crytek has heard loud and clear.

"This time around the consoles couldn't gain much more," Yerli added. "It was like a five per cent or ten per cent gain. That's it. But the PC version, because the specs are now much more evolved, this is two years later, effectively, this is two generations of PCs we could leverage and DirectX 11 is fully rolled out, so now we could really push it.

"I made a joke at one point saying, 'we're going to melt PCs,' and I think we are going to melt PCs again. People want that, and we'll deliver that.

"With Crysis 2 we tried to make the spec available to as many PC gamers as possible. Then we heard back from the loudest group, which was enthusiast PC gamers, 'our PCs are running this game at 200 frames. What the hell? We should be running at 30 frames'.

"Our graphics programmers said, 'we're going to give them a game they can't run any more?.?

Source: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/impossible-for-next-gen-to-match-gaming-pcs-crysis-3-will-push-pc-tech/0111034

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Jerry Buss, Lakers' flamboyant owner, dies at 80

FILE - In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - In this June 18, 1981 file photo, Jerry Buss holds a Los Angeles Lakers shirt in Los Angeles. Buss died Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this June 15, 1987 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss gets doused with champagne from members of his team as he holds the NBA Championship trophy after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics 106-93 to win the NBA Championship four games to two in Inglewood, Calif. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Lennox Mclendon, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2010 file photo, Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, foreground, speaks as, from background left to right, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Pat Riley react during the enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Mass. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

FILE - In this June 18, 1980 file photo, Jerry Buss, center, poses with players from his teams at a charity event in Beverly Hills, Calif. From left are Los Angeles Lakers' Jamaal Wilkes, Los Angeles Kings' Charlie Simmer, Buss, Lakers' Magic Johnson and Kings' Marcel Dionne. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA team to 10 championships from the Showtime dynasty of the 1980s to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday. He was 80.

He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant.

Buss had been hospitalized for most of the past 18 months while undergoing cancer treatment, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said. With his condition apparently worsening in recent weeks, several prominent former Lakers visited Buss to say goodbye.

"The NBA has lost a visionary owner whose influence on our league is incalculable and will be felt for decades to come," NBA Commissioner David Stern said. "More importantly, we have lost a dear and valued friend."

Under Buss' leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California's most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure, from Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard.

"Condolences to the Buss family," tweeted James Worthy, the Lakers' Hall of Fame forward. "Dr Buss was not only the greatest sports owner, but a true friend & just a really cool guy. Loved him dearly."

Few owners in sports history can approach Buss' accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his nearly 34 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA's winningest franchise since he bought the club, which is now run largely by Jim Buss and Jeanie Buss, two of his six children.

"We not only have lost our cherished father, but a beloved man of our community and a person respected by the world basketball community," the Buss family said in a statement issued by the Lakers.

"It was our father's often-stated desire and expectation that the Lakers remain in the Buss family. The Lakers have been our lives as well, and we will honor his wish and do everything in our power to continue his unparalleled legacy."

Buss always referred to the Lakers as his extended family, and his players rewarded his fanlike excitement with devotion, friendship and two hands full of championship rings. Working with front-office executives Jerry West, Bill Sharman and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA's highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, further justifying his induction to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

"Dr. Jerry Buss was a cornerstone of the Los Angeles sports community and his name will always be synonymous with his beloved Lakers," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "It was through his stewardship that the Lakers brought 'Showtime' basketball and numerous championship rings to this great city. Today we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of a man who helped shape the modern landscape of sports in L.A."

Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Abdul-Jabbar and Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers' run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their flamboyant Showtime style. The buzz extended throughout the Forum, where Buss used the Laker Girls, a brass band and promotions to keep Los Angeles fans interested in all four quarters of their games.

Jackson then led O'Neal and Bryant to a three-peat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers' mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010.

Although Buss gained fame and fortune with the Lakers, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool ? and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle ? for his entire public life.

Buss rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches at the Forum, poker tournaments ? and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch. In failing health recently, Buss hadn't attended a Lakers game this season.

Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money from his real-estate ventures and a good bit of creative accounting, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and both clubs' arena ? the Forum ? from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.

Last month, Forbes estimated the Lakers were worth $1 billion, second most in the NBA.

Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.

Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan ? another deal that was ahead of its time.

Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in poverty in Wyoming before improving his life through education. He attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took a turn into wealth and sports.

The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer and co-worker.

Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss' love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers ? who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 ? into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.

"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."

Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast sophistication.

Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.

Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.

Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.

Shaq and Kobe didn't reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls' six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG's state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.

After the Lakers traded O'Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.

Through the Lakers' frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 ? with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz ? prompted him to cut down on his partying.

Buss owned the NHL's Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss' ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Buss' six children all have worked for the Lakers organization in various capacities for several years. Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel and the second-oldest child, has taken over much of the club's primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie runs the franchise's business side.

Jerry Buss still served two terms as president of the NBA's Board of Governors and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-18-Obit-Jerry%20Buss/id-db1cbdcf43a94934a0b05260560987a6

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StatSheet Projects Alabama as NCAA Tournament Bubble Team 12 Seed: 02/17/2013

StatSeed is StatSheet's postseason projections for all of Division I, including the NCAA Tournament, National Invitation Tournament (NIT), College Basketball Invitational (CBI), and the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT). Read more about how StatSeed is calculated.

StatSheet now projects Alabama as a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament with potentially a 12 seed. The Crimson Tide are ranked #51 in the StatSheet StatRank with a 17-8 overall record and a 9-3 record in the SEC. During the last four games, Alabama held up strong with wins against South Carolina, Georgia, and LSU but also took on a bad loss to RPI #217 Auburn. Alabama is weak against top competition, with a 6-4 record against the RPI Top 100 but a 1-3 record against the RPI Top 50 and a 1-0 record against AP ranked teams. While the Crimson Tide have a single quality win against AP #25 Kentucky, they're also weighed down by four bad losses including RPI #217 Auburn, RPI #143 Tulane, RPI #151 Mercer, and RPI #114 Dayton. The last four teams into the NCAA Tournament with at-large bids are Southern Miss (20-6, 9-2 C-USA, StatRank #40), Alabama (17-8, 9-3 SEC, StatRank #58), Iowa State (17-8, 7-5 Big 12, StatRank #56), and Villanova (16-10, 7-6 Big East, StatRank #59). The first four teams out are Florida State (14-11, 6-6 ACC, StatRank #77), Maryland (18-7, 6-6 ACC, StatRank #64), Stanford (15-11, 6-7 Pac 12, StatRank #73), and Temple (17-8, 6-5 A-10, StatRank #53). The next four out are Arizona State (19-7, 8-5 Pac 12, StatRank #70), Creighton (21-6, 10-5 Missouri Valley, StatRank #43), Saint Louis (19-5, 8-2 A-10, StatRank #46), and Tennessee (14-10, 6-6 SEC, StatRank #72).

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Source: http://rolltidereview.com/alabama-basketball/statseed-update/statsheet-projects-alabama-as-ncaa-tournament-bubble-team-12-seed-02-17-2013

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