Daily Bracketology: Thursday

Another day, another Field of 65. As you should know by now, I'm projecting the NCAA Tournament field on a daily basis for the rest of the year (except no Saturday's since there's little action Friday). This is a field based on how the tourney looks "as of this moment." For one-bid leagues, I simply include the conference leader at the time of publishing. In case of ties, I use my projected winner.

 

Arrows indicate a team that moved up or down based on last night's performance. (Just because a team won or lost doesn't necessarily mean they'll move substantially.)

 

Note on Thursday's Movement: Perhaps more important than movement within the field were results that affected teams on the outside looking in. Huge wins by Miami (especially), and Villanova, and Ole Miss have them squarely back in the NCAA Tournament picture. Miami now is the 2nd to last team out, which sets up a huge home game against Maryland (the 2nd to last team in) over the weekend.

 

Despite Duke's loss, they still hang on to the last #1 seed thanks to their gaudy RPI. Losses by Kansas State and West Virginia drop them to last in their respective seeds. The combined losses of WVU and Mississippi State allow UNLV to jump to a #9 seed. Finally, a win by Winthrop and a loss by UNCA has the Eagles officially representing the Big South as of right now.

 

ONE

Memphis*

Tennessee*

North Carolina

Duke*

 

TWO

Kansas*

UCLA*

Texas

Georgetown*

 

THREE

Xavier*

UCONN

Butler*

Wisconsin

 

 

FOUR

Stanford

Purdue*

Louisville

Indiana

 

FIVE

Michigan State 

Drake*

Notre Dame 

Kansas State

 

SIX

Marquette

Washington State 

Saint Mary's

Pittsburgh

 

SEVEN

Vanderbilt

Arizona

Clemson

Gonzaga*

 

EIGHT

Texas A&M

BYU*

Arkansas

Oklahoma 

 

NINE

USC

Rhode Island

UNLV 

West Virginia

 

TEN

Mississippi State

Baylor

South Alabama

Ohio State

 

ELEVEN

Oregon

Arizona State

Syracuse

Kent State*

 

TWELVE

Maryland 

Saint Joseph's

Florida

Western Kentucky*

 

THIRTEEN

VCU*

Davidson*

Oral Roberts*

Boise State*

 

FOURTEEN

Winthrop*

CS Northridge*

Rider*

Cornell*

 

FIFTEEN

UMBC*

Belmont*

American*

Lamar*

 

SIXTEEN + ONE

Robert Morris*

Austin Peay*

Portland State*

Morgan State* /Alabama State*

 

* = Conference champion

 

League Winners (31)

America East - UMBC

A-10 - Xavier

ACC - Duke

Atlantic Sun - Belmont

Big 12 - Kansas

Big East - Georgetown

Big Sky - Portland State

Big South - Winthrop

Big Ten - Purdue

Big West - CS Northridge

CAA - VCU

Conference USA - Memphis

Horizon - Butler

Ivy - Cornell

MAAC - Rider

MAC - Kent State

MEAC - Morgan State

MVC - Drake

MWC - BYU

Northeast - Robert Morris

Ohio Valley - Austin Peay

Pac-10 - UCLA

Patriot - American

SEC - Tennessee

Southern - Davidson

Southland - Lamar

SWAC - Alabama State

Summit - Oral Roberts

Sun Belt - Western Kentucky*

WAC - Boise State

WCC - Gonzaga

 

Last In: Syracuse, Maryland, Saint Joseph's, Florida

Last Out: Dayton, Miami, Ole Miss, Wake Forest

 

- Check out yesterday's Daily Bracketology to compare the subtle changes.