Ladies and gentlemen, we will finally have a full NCAA Tournament bracket in just under a month. If those words don’t get you excited I’m not sure why you’d be reading this in the first place.

To be honest, I used up most of my college basketball enthusiasm for this week during our toast to the Auburn Tigers in yesterday’s podcast. Please do yourselves a favor and go watch that,  and subscribe on YouTube if you have not already. We had our new guy Colin on the show to sadly recap his Crimson Tide losing to the best team in college basketball, talked about the NBA All-Star disaster, and brought up some baseball.

Either way, this is about bracketology, and we had a few major developments happen since the last time we talked. Oklahoma, who had been in our field since the first bracket projection of the year, has fully embodied the “wheels falling off the wagon” clichè, (and 2019 video), during a four-game losing streak which now has the Sooners booming out of the field and onto the wrong side of the bubble.

BYU soaked up the vacant spot to claim a comfortable, yet also wobbly and unstable position, into the field. VCU, who has become the underdog story of our bubble, rammed it’s way into field, pushing UGA into the ‘Last Four In’.

Now that I’m out of puns, here’s our projected ‘Field of 68’.

First Four Out: Wake Forest, North Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma

• In true bubble team fashion, Wake Forest lost at home to open last week before earning a season-saving road victory over SMU on Saturday. The Demon Deacons slayed the Mustangs without the contributions of second leading scorer Cam Hildreth, adding to the belief this squad has the chance to get hot enough to earn a bid down the stretch.
• UNC has five-straight extremely winnable games in front of it. If the Tarheels can take care of business against NC State, Virginia, Florida State, Miami, and Virginia Tech, Hubert Davis’s squad will have the opportunity to put themselves into the NCAA Tournament with a season-capping upset over Duke in Chapel Hill. Even with a 6-0 finish, North Carolina may need to at least make a run to the ACC Tournament Semi-Finals.
• Arkansas is not safe in this spot. We nearly took the Razorbacks completely off the bubble, but the opportunity to sleigh No. 1 overall seed Auburn in Neville Arena provides too much opportunity to ignore.
• Oklahoma has lost four in a row at the absolute worst time of the season. The Sooners stand almost no chance in Gainesville this week against Florida, but do have the opportunity to earn some important home victories against Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Missouri to finish the season.

 

• Last Four In: West Virginia, Georgia, San Diego State, UC San Diego

• West Virginia is basically Oklahoma with more key wins. Those wins are mighty impressive though. The Mountaineers have beaten Kansas, Iowa State, and Arizona this season, while also earning a victory over Gonzaga when it was ranked No. 3 in the country.
• Georgia is not in a good spot right now. Freshman sensation Asa Newell and the Bulldogs have lost three games in the SEC by a single possession, and that may be the difference by ‘Selection Sunday’.
• San Diego State is going to make the first four and cover a large spread, while still losing, in Dayton.
• We think UC San Diego is going to win the Big West tournament, but have the Tritons in as an at-large because, as of right now, it is deserved. If UC Irvine is able to win the Big West, the committee needs to consider UC San Diego.

16 seeds: American, Youngstown State/Central Connecticut, Bryant, Omaha/Southern

15 seeds: Norfolk State, Jacksonville State, SEMO, Quinnipiac

14 seeds: Arkansas State, High Point, Montana, North Alabama

13 seeds: McNeese, Grand Canyon, Akron, Samford

12 seeds: Yale, George Mason, Towson, Drake

11 seeds: UC Irvine, West Virginia/UC San Diego, Georgia/San Diego State, VCU

10 seeds: Vanderbilt, Utah State, Texas, Baylor

9 seeds: Ohio State, BYU, UConn, Nebraska

8 seeds: Illinois, Gonzaga, Oregon, New Mexico

7 seeds: UCLA, Creighton, Ole Miss, Louisville

6 seeds: Memphis, St. Mary’s, Missouri, Maryland

5 seeds: Kansas, Mississippi State, Michigan, Clemson

4 seeds: Marquette, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Arizona

3 seeds: St. John’s, Texas Tech, Purdue, Michigan State

2 seeds: (5) Alabama, (6) Tennessee, (7) Iowa State, (8) Texas A&M

1 seeds: (1) Auburn, (2), Florida, (3) Duke, (4) Houston

 

Projected Major conference champions: Michigan State, Houston, St. John’s, Auburn, Duke, New Mexico