March Madness Bracketology Update for 3/2: Zags Staking Claim

The countdown continues to Selection Sunday in college basketball, and we’ve got you geared up with another edition of our bracket projections! If you’re starting to tune in to the collegiate hardwood, we’ve covered you with our latest bracket projections.

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	MIDWEST	EAST	SOUTH	WEST
1	Purdue (+750)	UConn (+550)	Houston (+700)	Tennessee (+1300)
2	Marquette (+2100)	Kansas (+4000)	North Carolina (+2100)	Arizona (+1300)
3	Duke (+2300)	Alabama (+2600)	Creighton (+3100)	Iowa State (+2100)
4	Baylor (+4000)	Illinois (+4000)	Kentucky (+3000)	San Diego State (+6000)
5	Wisconsin	BYU	Clemson	Auburn
6	Saint Mary’s	Dayton	Florida	Washington State
7	Northwestern	South Carolina	Nevada	Utah State
8	Texas	Colorado State	TCU	Nebraska
9	Boise State	Oklahoma	Mississippi State	Texas Tech
10	New Mexico	Gonzaga	Michigan State	Florida Atlantic
11	Indiana State	Seton Hall	Virginia	PROV/WAKE
12	James Madison	Princeton	WASH ST/SJU	Grand Canyon
13	Samford	McNeese	Louisana Tech	UC Irvine
14	High Point	Vermont	Charleston	Akron
15	Morehead State	Eastern Washington	Youngstown State	Colgate
16	MERR/NORF	LIPS/FAIR	Southern	St. Thomas

LAST FOUR IN: Providence, Utah, Wake Forest, St. John’s

FIRST FOUR OUT: Villanova, Colorado, Ole Miss, Texas A&M

NEXT FOUR OUT: Drake, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, James Madison

Bold = automatic qualifier through conference title

Odds = National Championship odds for the top 16 teams (1-4 seeds) 

Conference winners were determined based on the following:

• Power 6 conferences: Highest-seeded team
• Mid-major conferences: Highest current KenPom ranking

Gonzaga Climbing Towards Safety

After accruing a second Quad 1 win on Thursday night with a dominant performance against San Francisco on the road, the Zags are slowly solidifying themselves into the field of 68. They have climbed to our ten-seed line and, with a trip to Moraga to take on Saint Mary’s preluding the WCC Tournament, there really aren’t any opportunities left for them to severely hinder their resumé. The Bulldogs will be dancing for the 25th consecutive season, the third-longest active streak in college basketball.

Tennessee Overtakes as Fourth #1 Seed

We had Tennessee as our final number-one seed and reverted back to Arizona in our previous edition after receiving some pushback from most of the bracketology world. But we’re ready to hop back on the Volunteer bandwagon after an elite performance at home against Auburn, where they made mincemeat of a top-five defense. It’s Tennessee’s fifth Quad 1 win of the season and now has just one fewer win than Arizona in the top two quadrants with zero losses in the bottom two. That’s as impressive as it gets regarding resumé-building, and it feels time to give the Vols their due respect.

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Kentucky’s Surge Reaches Protected Seeding

Kentucky’s streaking stretch is now at four wins in their past five, most recently culminated by Reed Sheppard’s electric outing against Mississippi State, where he canned a floater as time expired to push the Wildcats past the Bulldogs on the road. There is so much to like about this team’s resumé as things stand. Their resumé-based metrics and results-based metrics all rank within the top 20. They have a 5-5 record in the first quadrant. And perhaps one of the more underrated aspects of a resumé that the selection committee considers, they are 6-3 in true road games this season. It’s incredible how poised John Calipari is getting his freshmen to play in hostile environments, and it makes the Wildcats more than deserving of a protected seed.

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