Weekly Bracketology: 01.30.12
Posted by zhayes9 on January 30th, 2012
Zach Hayes is RTC’s official bracketologist.
Last Four In: Mississippi, Southern Miss, Saint Louis, BYU.
Last Four Out: Arkansas, NC State, Marshall, Colorado State.
*click on the bracket for a full-screen view
Automatic bids: Stony Brook, Massachusetts, Duke, Kansas, Belmont, Syracuse, Weber State, UNC-Asheville, Long Beach State, Michigan State, George Mason, Memphis, Cleveland State, Harvard, Iona, Akron, Norfolk State, Creighton, San Diego State, Long Island, Murray State, California, Bucknell, Kentucky, Davidson, Texas-Arlington, Mississippi Valley State, Oral Roberts, Middle Tennessee, St. Mary’s, Nevada.
Bids per conference: Big East (9), Big Ten (8), SEC (6), Big 12 (5), Atlantic 10 (5), ACC (4), MWC (3), WCC (3), MVC (2), Conference USA (2).
Going to be a battle for the final #1 seed. Duke, UNC, Kansas, Missouri, Baylor are all still in the mix. Maybe even Michigan State.
The seeding of Harvard, Nevada and Murray State is going to be a topic of discussion. How do you seed teams with gaudy records that haven’t played anybody? I think you did a good job with those teams, although I don’t think Harvard will stay on the 8 line by the end of the season.
Purdue seems high at a 9 and Virginia seems low at a 7. Temple probably too high at a 9 as well. Everything else looks really good.
Virginia’s W-L record would definitely suggest higher than a 7, but dig into their resume- 154 SOS, 245 non conf SOS, 7 wins against sub 200 RPI, lone win vs. a tournament team at home against Michigan. Weak state of the ACC aside from Duke/UNC/FSU hurts them, while the opposite is true of Purdue. They’ll have an inflated RPI because of the depth and strength in the Big 10.