It’s only week two of bracketology and we’ve seen some crazy movement on the bubble. Matt’s Villanova Wildcats suffered one of their worst weeks in program history, leading to them going from the ‘Last Four In’ to the ‘First Four Out’, while Vanderbilt and Missouri played themselves into the field, taking Villanova’s spot in the first four and Indiana’s spot as an 11-seed, respectively, and Creighton is now safely in the field. Arkansas fell from a safe 10-seed to the first four out after another bad week, leading to Ohio State jumping all the way into the ‘Last Team Out’ slot, just behind Vanderbilt, who entered the ‘Last Four In’. Texas also took a step back, falling from the ‘Last Four In’ to ‘First Four Out, subsequentially knocking Arizona State off the wrong side of the bubble.

First Four Out: Ohio State, Indiana, Arkansas, Villanova

• As long as Bruce Thornton is healthy, Ohio State has a chance to make the ‘Field of 68’. The Buckeyes have lost three-straight contests by single possessions, and although they were all against quality teams in the BIG 10, close is not good enough when it comes to the bubble.
• Indiana is in shambles, for a lack of a better term. The Hoosiers did earn an overtime victory over Ohio State, but that win felt more needed than it did significant.
•  Tell us if you’ve heard this before, but John Calipari-led team is struggling to find itself. Arkansas has now lost it’s first five SEC contests and needs to pick up a few quick wins in a row if it hopes to stay around the bubble.
• Villanova is purely here to appease Matt. The Wildcats just lost to Georgetown. Although Ed Cooley is seemingly beginning to turnaround that program, a loss by the Wildcats in that spot in unacceptable.

Last Four In: Vanderbilt, Penn State, Cincinnati, Texas

• Vanderbilt is officially a solid team in an extremely deep SEC conference. The Commodores now hold a 15-2 (3-2) record this season after picking up a pair of SEC wins this week, including a thrilling upset of No. 6 ranked Tennessee. Jason Edwards is a star at guard, and with an experienced March hooper in A.J. Hoggard behind him, ‘Vandy’ has every chance to make the field.
• Penn State stayed idle for the most part this week, although they did drop one spot, behind Vanderbilt. The skid was little fault of their own however, as the Nittany Lions lost a wire-to-wire contest with projected four-seed Michigan State before finishing off a sweep of Rutgers to end the week. Penn State needs to put together a few wins in a row to get safely into the tournament.
• Cincinnati is slowly rejuvenating itself after a rough middle of the season. Opportunities will present themselves in the BIG 12, and the Bearcats took advantage last week, earning victories over Arizona State and in Boulder against Colorado.

16 seeds: Lehigh, SEMO/Long Island, Vermont, Omaha/Southern

15 seeds: Norfolk State, Kent State, Youngstown State, Marist

14 seeds: Arkansas State, High Point, Northern Colorado, New Mexico State

13 seeds: Yale, Grand Canyon, Lipscomb, Samford

12 seeds: McNeese, George Mason, Charleston, Drake

11 seeds: UC Irvine, Missouri/Penn State, Texas/Cincinnati, Missouri

10 seeds: Ohio State, Creighton, Nebraska, Texas Tech

9 seeds: Maryland, New Mexico, Louisville, North Carolina

8 seeds: Clemson, St. John’s, Georgia, San Diego State

7 seeds: Utah State, Baylor, Arizona, West Virginia

6 seeds: Michigan, UCLA, Oklahoma, Wisconsin

5 seeds: Ole Miss, UConn, Memphis, Purdue

4 seeds: Mississippi State, Florida, Michigan State, Gonzaga

3 seeds: Kentucky, Illinois, Texas A&M, Oregon

2 seeds: (5) Alabama, (6) Marquette, (7) Houston, (8) Kansas

1 seeds: (1) Auburn, (2) Duke, (3), Iowa State, (4) Tennessee

 

Projected Major conference champions: Oregon, Iowa State, UCONN, Auburn, Duke, San Diego State,