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).
View Comments (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.