Zach Hayes is RTC’s official bracketologist.

Last Update: Wednesday, March 7, 5:49 PM ET.

Changes:

• Connecticut jumps to the #9 seed line following their Big East Tournament win over West Virginia. The Huskies boast six RPI top-50 wins including a sweep of the Mountaineers, a true road win at Notre Dame and a neutral court victory over Harvard. UConn is safely in the field and they face Syracuse on Thursday in a game where they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
• West Virginia is now a horribly mediocre 19-14 overall and 9-10 in Big East play. During most other seasons that would punch their ticket to the NIT, but due to the soft bubble, Pac-12 struggles and lack of bid stealers thus far, Bob Huggins’ team is still projected to make the tournament by a decent margin. At the moment they sit as the final #10 seed on the S-Curve but will likely drop as teams below them have opportunities to gather quality wins during the week. Despite the shoddy record, WVU does boast a #45 RPI, #16 SOS and has beaten projected NCAA teams Georgetown, Kansas State, Miami, Cincinnati, USF and Akron, while UConn isn’t considered a “bad” loss.

• Last Four In: Northwestern, Xavier, Texas, South Florida.
  
• First Four Out: Seton Hall, Drexel, Tennessee, Oregon.
  
• Next Four Out: Dayton, NC State, Oral Roberts, St. Joseph’s.            

3/7 S-Curve

1 Seeds: Kentucky, Syracuse, Kansas, North Carolina

2 Seeds: Duke, Michigan State, Missouri, Ohio State

3 Seeds: Marquette, Michigan, Baylor, Georgetown

4 Seeds: Indiana, Wisconsin, Florida State, Temple

5 Seeds: Wichita State, Murray State, UNLV, Louisville

6 Seeds: Vanderbilt, Florida, Notre Dame, Creighton

7 Seeds: Saint Mary’s, Iowa State, San Diego State, Gonzaga

8 Seeds: New Mexico, Kansas State, Purdue, Memphis

9 Seeds: Cincinnati, Saint Louis, Alabama, Connecticut

10 Seeds: Southern Miss, Virginia, Harvard, West Virginia

11 Seeds: Colorado State, Mississippi State, California, BYU

12 Seeds: VCU, Miami, Washington, South Florida, Long Beach State

13 Seeds: Texas, Xavier, Northwestern, Nevada, Davidson

14 Seeds: South Dakota State, Akron, Belmont, Montana

15 Seeds: Loyola (MD), Bucknell, Detroit, UT-Arlington

16 Seeds: UNC-Asheville, LIU-Brooklyn, Stony Brook, Mississippi Valley State, Savannah State, Western Kentucky

Automatic bids: Stony Brook, Temple, North Carolina, Belmont, Kansas, Syracuse, Montana, UNC-Asheville, Michigan State, Long Beach State, VCU, Memphis, Detroit, Harvard, Loyola (MD), Akron, Savannah State, Creighton, San Diego State, LIU Brooklyn, Murray State, Washington, Bucknell, Kentucky, Davidson, UT-Arlington, Mississippi Valley State, Western Kentucky, South Dakota State, Saint Mary’s, Nevada.

Bids per conference: Big East (9), Big Ten (7), Big 12 (6), SEC (5), ACC (5), Mountain West (4), Atlantic 10 (3), WCC (3), Conference USA (2), Missouri Valley (2), Pac-12 (2).

To clinch a bid:

• Southern Miss- Reach the Conference USA Tournament semifinals by beating East Carolina/Rice in the quarterfinals then Tulsa/Marshall/SMU in the semifinals
• Virginia- Beat NC State in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals (quarterfinal win vs. BC would not clinch bid)
• Colorado State- Beat TCU in the Mountain West tournament quarterfinals then San Diego State in the semifinals
• Mississippi State- Beat Georgia in the SEC Tournament first round then Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals
• California- Beat Stanford/Arizona State in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals then Oregon in the semifinals (semifinal game vs. Colorado/Utah would not clinch bid)
• BYU– regular season over
• Miami- Beat Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament first round then Florida State in the quarterfinal and Duke in the semifinal (semifinal win vs. Clemson/Virginia Tech would not clinch bid)
• Washington- Win the Pac-12 Tournament
• South Florida– Beat Villanova/Rutgers in the Big East Tournament second round then beat Notre Dame in the quarterfinals
• Texas- Beat Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinal (may need to beat Missouri in the semifinal depending on bubble picture)
• Long Beach State- Reach the Big West Tournament final
• Xavier- Beat Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Tournament final then Saint Louis in the semifinal (semifinal game vs. La Salle/Richmond would not clinch bid)
• Northwestern- Beat Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament first round then Michigan in the quarterfinal (may need to beat Ohio State in semifinal depending on bubble picture)
• Seton Hall- Beat Louisville in the Big East Tournament second round
• Tennessee- Beat Ole Miss/Auburn in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals then Vanderbilt/Mississippi State in the semifinals (semifinal game vs. Georgia would not clinch bid)
• Oregon– Win the Pac-12 Tournament
• Dayton– Reach the Atlantic 10 Tournament final by beating Xavier and Saint Louis
• NC State– Reach the ACC Tournament finals by beating Boston College, Virginia and then Florida State/Miami/Georgia Techno

zhayes9 (301 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 at 3:36 pm by zhayes9 and is filed under bracketology. Tagged: byu, california, colorado state, connecticut, dayton, harvard, long beach state, miami, mississippi state, nc state, northwestern, oral roberts, oregon, seton hall, south florida, southern miss, tennessee, texas, vcu, virginia, washington, west virginia, xavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.