Midweek bracketology special for the loyal readers here at Rush the Court.
– Three Big East teams in the Final Four. Don’t think it can’t happen, folks.
– Kansas‘ loss to Texas Tech drops them from the highest #2 seed to a #3 seed. Duke climbs up the charts to the final #1 seed, edging out Oklahoma and Michigan State (can’t have three Big East #1 seeds, sorry Cardinals) with their 1 RPI, 4 SOS and 8 wins against the RPI top 50. I just can’t put Memphis on the top line beating up on a bad Conference USA with their mediocre non-conference performance. Oklahoma slips to a #2 seed for the first time in forever. Missouri moves up the #3 seed ranks with their big win over the Sooners.
– Some stunning losses last night: LSU losing at home to Vanderbilt drops them to the last #5 seed. Purdue losing to Northwestern actually didn’t move them at all due to Marquette and LSU losing and a superior overall resume to both Florida State and Xavier. Kentucky‘s unreal loss to Georgia knocks them totally out of the picture at this point, and Florida‘s loss to Mississippi State hurts badly.
– Creighton is an at-large team in this bracket with Northern Iowa capturing the regular season #1 seed in the Missouri Valley. Creighton is the last #10 seed and Northern Iowa the last #12 seed.
– Barely getting in this time around: Providence, Texas A&M, Creighton, UNLV, Arizona, Michigan and Penn State. All of those teams are still on the bubble big time.
Last Four In: Michigan, Arizona, Texas A&M, Penn State
Last Four Out: San Diego State, Maryland, Florida, New Mexico
Next Four Out: Kentucky, Saint Mary’s, Rhode Island, Virginia Tech
Also considered: Miami, Kansas State, Auburn, Tulsa, Washington State, Cincinnati, USC, Temple, Mississippi State, George Mason, Notre Dame
Bids per conference: Big East (8), Big Ten (8), ACC (6), Big 12 (6), Pac-10 (5), SEC (3), Mountain West (3), Missouri Valley (2), Atlantic-10 (2).
Automatic bids: Binghamton, Xavier, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Connecticut, Kansas, Weber State, Radford, Michigan State, Cal State Northridge, VCU, Memphis, Butler, Cornell, Siena, Bowling Green, Morgan State, Northern Iowa, Utah, Robert Morris, Tennessee-Martin, Washington, American, LSU, Davidson, Stephen F. Austin, Alabama State, North Dakota State, Western Kentucky, Gonzaga, Utah State.
Next bracket: Monday, March 9.