Mid Range Report Bracketology V5 2/12/2016
Updated bracketology before today's amazing slate:
And the full S-Curve:
Last Four In: Cincinnati, Saint Mary's, Florida State, Wisconsin
First Four Out: George Washington, Oregon State, UCLA, Vanderbilt
Next Four Out: Texas Tech, LSU, Alabama, Kansas State
A few quick notes:
Virginia is now a 1-seed. The Cavs' resume is awesome and they now sit tied with North Carolina at the top of the ACC standings.
Xavier gets bumped down to a 3-seed after their loss to Creighton. The Musketeers are falling back to Earth rather quickly, as they had two close calls against both St. John's and Marquette before falling to the Jays on Tuesday. Oregon benefits from Xavier's fall, though right after I made this bracket, the Ducks got slaughtered by the hands of Cal. Still like the positions right now.
Kentucky vaults back up to a 4-seed after a short stint in the dog house. They dismantled both Florida and Georgia in their previous two contests.
USC lost to Arizona State last night. A good argument could be made to drop the Trojans down a line to a 7-seed. outh Carolina has been great lately with wins over LSU and A&M, they likely deserve a 6-seed - today's bout with Kentucky will tell us a lot about the Cocks.
The 9 through 11 seeds feel super gross to me. A lot of these teams have not-so-spectacular resumes and I think you can slot about 15 teams in any order and look correct. St. Joe's had a huge win at GW this week, cementing them firmly in the bracket at a 10. I don't feel too comfortable about Butler or Washington at 10s, but somebody has to be there. I gave Monmouth a 10-seed nod - their resume is honestly just as good as a lot of the 9 through 11 teams despite playing in the MAAC.
I have Temple in the field right now as the American's auto-bid. The Owls now sit atop the AAC standings (with ineligible SMU) and their win over UConn this week convinced me to include them in the field (mostly because everyone else's resumes kind of suck). For the record they would not make the tournament as of today as an at-large.
Wisconsin is in the field now too, which seems unbelievable after their brutal start to the season where the lost to Western Illinois and UW-Milwaukee at home. The Badg have won 6 in a row and are playing their best basketball of the year.
That's it for now - enjoy today's slate of games!