Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Six days until the NCAA tournament field of 68 tips off!

Major conference tournaments step up a gear today.  Middle Tennessee State's profile is holding up well.  So well, in fact, that I've moved them up to the 11 line (assuming they take care of business in their conference tournament) and moved one of the at-large play-in games down to the 12 line.      

Bracketology
My field prognostication as of today is as follows:

  • #1 seeds:  Villanova, North Carolina, Kansas, Gonzaga
  • #2 seeds:  Baylor, Louisville, Kentucky, Florida
  • #3 seeds:  Duke, Florida St., Butler, UCLA
  • #4 seeds:  Oregon, Arizona, Virginia, Purdue
  • #5 seeds:  West Virginia, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Notre Dame 
  • #6 seeds:  Creighton, Dayton, St. Mary's, SMU
  • #7 seeds:  Iowa State, Wisconsin, Maryland, South Carolina 
  • #8 seeds:  Oklahoma State, Miami (FL), Arkansas, Michigan St.
  • #9 seeds:  Michigan, VCU, Virginia Tech, Xavier  
  • #10 seeds:  Seton Hall, Providence, Wichita State, Northwestern
  • #11 seeds:  Vanderbilt, Marquette, Middle Tenn. St.*, play-in: Wake Forest / Rhode Island 
  • #12 seeds:  N.C. Wilmington, TX Arlington*, Nevada*, play-in: USC / Syracuse
  • #13 seeds:  Vermont*, Princeton*, E. Tennessee St., Akron*
  • #14 seeds:  Bucknell*, Winthrop, Fla Gulf Coast, Iona 
  • #15 seeds:  CSU Bakersfield*, No. Kentucky, Texas Southern*, UC Irvine* 
  • #16 seeds:  So. Dakota St., Jacksonville St., play-in: Mount St Mary's / North Dakota*, play-in: New Orleans* / North Carolina Central*  
  • First four out:  Kansas State, Illinois, Iowa, California

* presumed automatic qualifiers

    Bubble talk
    Let's get it on.  Wake Forest, Syracuse, USC and Cal all in action today.

    Bracket Matrix
    Check this site out.  Great compilation of expert and amateur bracket projections.
    http://www.bracketmatrix.com/