Friday provided plenty of surprises, with a potential No. 1 seed, Kansas, going down, to a team that’s moving up the S-curve, Baylor.
Among the non-power conferences, the WAC favorite, Nevada, fell to Louisiana Tech late last night, opening the door for New Mexico State to claim the conference’s automatic bid. All the action shifted the outlook for the NCAA Tournament at nearly every level. Here are some the highlights.
- Duke moves up to the third No. 1 seed. Really, the Blue Devils are a placeholder for whichever team advances further in the ACC Tournament between Duke and North Carolina.
- With the ACC’s best team moving to the No. 3 spot, Kentucky moves from the South/Atlanta region to Midwest/St. Louis, with Duke going to Atlanta. If both Duke and North Carolina lose today, I’d move Kansas back to St. Louis from Phoenix and send the Blue Devils out west. The Tar Heels would be a No. 2 seed.
- Wisconsin beat Indiana Friday and took the Hoosiers’ No. 3 seed, too, dropping Indiana down to a No. 4 seed.
- UNLV’s home loss to New Mexico in the Mountain West Tournament means the Runnin’ Rebels are out of the protected seeds, with Florida State moving up to a No. 4 seed playing in Portland.
- California’s loss means we’re predicting Arizona will get the Pac-12 automatic bid. However, the Wildcats would be among one of our last teams in without it. That would change with a loss to Colorado today. Either way, the Pac-12 should get two bids.
- Xavier and Dayton basically played a bubble elimination game last night. Dayton lost, and the Flyers are now the first team out of the field.
- Mississippi State rejoins the field with Dayton falling out. Miami is also out today, replaced by Arizona.
For a complete look at other experts’ picks, check out the Bracket Project.
