Bracket News: Jan 28th

We take a look at each seed line in today’s bracket and share a piece of information that is important to know. Seeds are starting to solidify with two thirds of the season over. Mostly teams fall in a range of two or three seeds and will only move up or out of that range with an extended winning or losing streak. For a detailed listing of all teams please go to our seed list or bracket in the pull down menus.

1 SEEDS

The main issue here is whether Sand Diego St will remain undefeated. What happens to their seed should they lose a game before the conference tournament. The Aztecs are probably a 1 or 2 seed for sure.

2 SEEDS

Tough decision for the two seed lines as several teams seem worthy. We moved Seton Hall up despite a double digit NET ranking. In the past five years only once has a double digit NET or RPI team been on the top two lines. Butler or Dayton would have replaced Seton Hall if we went by precedent. Also believe that Florida St may have better resume than Duke.

3 SEEDS

This line is also difficult to seed as the next seven teams all are worthy of being listed here. The key for us was Dayton and Butler. We decided to keep them on the three line for now. This only allowed for Florida St and Villanova to be three seeds. Oregon’ quad 3 losses to North Carolina and Washington St kept them off this seed line.

4 SEEDS

The only decision here was for the last slot. We chose Iowa over Kentucky by the slimmest of margins. Iowa is 9-4 in quads 1&2 while Kentucky is 6-3. Kentucky’s loss to Evansville was also considered.

5 SEEDS

The five seed line is highlighted by Illinois joining. We have been really high on the Illini for a couple of weeks. Winning on the road in the BIG 10 gets our respect.

6 SEEDS

Rutgers is a six seed. We repeat Rutgers is a six seed.

7 SEEDS

Arizona falls to a seven seed at the time. Their NET is at 10 but the quality of their resume is still suspect. Quad 1 record of 1-4 drops them into this spot.

8 SEEDS

Stanford is another PAC 12 conference team that has better metrics than resume. The Cardinal needs to add a few quality wins to move up the seed line. Ohio St is also on this line. Despite the recent struggles of the Buckeyes, their complete body of work is still worthy of an 8 seed if not higher.

9 SEEDS

The Michigan Wolverines are fighting to stay in the bracket after a tough stretch of games. Now point guard Xavier Simpson is suspended. Michigan must find a way to stop the bleeding if they want to prevent falling even further.

10 SEEDS

The West Coast Conference is a lot better this year. We have three teams in. Gonzaga and two 10 seeds in BYU and St Mary’s. Both of these teams need to pick up a few wins to stay in the bracket. DePaul is also on the 10 seed line. They have been in and out of the bracket. Their quality wins are carrying them to this point. They must avoid piling up a lot of losses for those wins to carry them to the dance.

11 SEEDS

Saint John’s enters the field this week on the 11 line. Their wins over West Virginia, Arizona, and DePaul twice push them into the field despite a NET ranking of 66. Arizona St also enters our field with their win over Arizona. The 11 seed line is always in flux and will change weekly.

12 SEEDS

Here is where the automatic qualifiers begin to be seeded. A few of these teams may move up a few seed lines depending on results. The 12 line has two team who may make the field without winning their conference tournaments. Those teams are East Tennessee St and Northern Iowa.

13 SEEDS

Does anyone want to draw Stephen F Austin in the first round. The Lumberjacks beat Duke at Duke. They are currently 14-3 and 1-2 in quad 1 games. Could they be a possible upset team in the NCAA? We will see.

14 SEEDS

The team to watch here is the Wright St Raiders. At 16-4, the Raiders pose a serious threat to some three seed in the tournament.

15 SEEDS

Highlighting this group is Murray St. They lost some good players from last year but still are winning games this year. They have beaten last years at large Belmont once and will play them again in the regular season.

16 SEEDS

Kudos out to Monmouth, the team that made the bench mob popular has a chance to go dancing. We appreciate their contributions to the game and hope to see them in March