Tennessee was thoroughly trounced by Kentucky at Rupp Arena last night. As a result, they fall to third overall. Virginia now moves into the South, while Tennessee heads to the Midwest.
The team of the day on Saturday was TCU. They won at Iowa State and made their at-large prospects a whole lot better in the process.
Yesterday’s Bracket Preview from the NCAA gave us all a glimpse into the committee’s thought process. 15 of the 16 teams I had were in there. The only one I missed was I had Villanova sixteenth overall, while the committee had them seventeenth. So, we seem to be mostly on the same page.
My biggest takeaways were:
-This committee is heavily reliant on the eye test. Gonzaga, Nevada, and Purdue were all just a little higher than their resumes would have them, while Houston and Michigan were lower. This committee will seed from the gut, it seems.
-Duke will be a number one seed. They entered the Virginia game first overall and left Charlottesville with a ten-point win. They’ll land on the top line, even if they drop a few.
-Speaking of Virginia, they were at three overall entering yesterday’s home loss. A strong win by Kentucky moves them ahead of UVA onto the one line in my bracket already.
-The committee is not crazy about Big XII-leading Kansas State. They were not amongst the five seeds that just missed out on the top 16.
Wofford won at East Tennessee State last night to move all the way up to a nine seed. They’re unbeaten against teams outside the top 35, and they were competitive against every opponent but Kansas.
The NCAA Bracket Preview is on CBS this Saturday afternoon.
Below is the final pre-Bracket Preview bracket. I feel pretty good about the sixteen teams I expect to see (the top four seed lines).
The race for number one seeds is particularly close this year. Michigan just edges out Tennessee for the final one seed due to a slightly better collection of wins.
EAST
1 Virginia
16 Norfolk State / Robert Morris
8 Ohio State
9 Washington
5 Iowa State
12 Hofstra
4 Villanova
13 Yale
6 Maryland
11 Seton Hall
3 Houston
14 UC Irvine
7 Kansas State
10 Nebraska
2 Kentucky
15 Northern Kentucky
WEST
1 Michigan
16 Prairie View A&M / Sam Houston State
Michigan State beat Maryland Monday night and is practically a fifth number one seed at this point. They stay at a two for the time being, but it’s just a matter of time until they get to the one line.
