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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

NCAA Tournament Projections: Midweek Notes

I just wanted to make some changes to the back end of the NCAA Tournament. I have figured there are nine at-large bids still up for grabs (assuming no big conference tournament upsets – which of course is probably going to happen). But until there are conference tournament upsets, here are the final nine teams I have in the tournament, followed by the list of teams that are still under consideration for an at-large bid, but need to perform well at the end of the regular season an in their respective conference tournaments. I was able to make the first eight decisions pretty quickly. The ninth was really difficult and had me thinking to myself, if they didn’t have that damn play-in game, getting to 64 teams is easy.

Teams 57-64 (in no particular order): Texas Tech, Syracuse, Old Dominion, Drexel, Creighton, Missouri State, Stanford, Illinois
Team 65: Oklahoma State
Team 66: West Virginia
Teams 67-76 (in no particular order): Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas State, Purdue, Michigan, Bradley, San Diego State

I will work on new seedings and pairings soon.

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Sunday, February 25, 2007

NCAA Tournament Seedings

All right. Here is my first crack at trying to seed teams for the NCAA Tournament. I'm sure I've missed something as there are a few rules when seeding, such as conference opponents cannot play each other in the first couple of rounds. So I've attempted to follow that, and hopefully I've created matchups that follow NCAA Tournament rules in terms of the pairings. At very least I've given each team a seed 1-16 (whether they end in that exact matchup or region is another story all together).

I started by ranking the teams 1-65, which was difficult by itself. Than I snaked through the seedings for each four regions. From there, I tried to move a few teams around to make pairings follow NCAA guidelines, and hopefully I pulled that part off.

Anyway, here are the projected seeds and match ups.

East Rutherford Region
1. North Carolina
16. Weber State

8. Illinois
9. Villanova

4. Kentucky
13. Vermont

5. Arizona
12. Davidson

3. Pittsburgh
14. Toledo

6. UNLV
11. Old Dominion

7. Maryland
10. Stanford

2. Texas A&M
15 . Marist

St. Louis Region
1. Ohio State
16. South Alabama

8. Virginia
9. Vanderbilt

4. Butler
13. Pennsylvania

5. Air Force
12. Kansas State

3. Memphis
14. Long Beach State

6. Notre Dame
11. Virginia Commonwealth

7. BYU
10. USC

2. Kansas
15. East Tennessee State

San Jose Region
1. UCLA
16. Central Connecticut State/Mississippi Valley State

8. Creighton
9. Xavier

4. Duke
13. Bucknell

5. Tennessee
12. West Virginia

3. Washington State
14. Oral Roberts

6. Texas
11. Winthrop

7. Indiana
10. Missouri State

2. Georgetown
15. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

San Antonio Region
1. Wisconsin
16. Austin Peay

8. Marquette
9. Oregon

4. Nevada
13. Santa Clara

5. Boston College
12. Alabama

3. Southern Illinois
14. Wright State

6. Virginia Tech
11. Texas Tech

7. Michigan State
10. Louisville

2. Florida
15. Delaware State

If you want to see who is in and who is on the bubble broken down by conference, just scroll down to the post below. Who have I seeded too high? Who is seeded too low? Thoughts? Comments? Post them below!

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NCAA Tournament Projections: Week 6

We are just a couple of weeks away from Selection Sunday. Conference tournaments start this week and its time for teams to scramble for another good win or two, or maybe even a Cinderella run through the conference tournament so they can go dancing in the middle of March. Who’s in? Who’s out? Well, here is the sixth installment of our NCAA Tournament projections.

Just a reminder, automatic bids are given to the team currently leading the conference.

Let’s start with conferences that will absolutely be getting only one bid (these teams need to maintain their spots at the top to make the dance):
America East: Vermont
Atlantic Sun: East Tennessee State
Big Sky: Weber State
Big West: Long Beach State
Ivy: Pennsylvania
Metro Atlantic Athletic: Marist
Mid Continent: Oral Roberts
Mid-America: Toledo
Mid-Eastern Athletic: Delaware State
Northeast: Central Connecticut State
Ohio Valley: Austin Peay
Patriot: Bucknell
Southern: Davidson
Southland: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Southwest Athletic: Mississippi Valley State
Sunbelt: South Alabama

The following conferences will be one-bid conferences if the current leader wins the conference. If the current leader does not win the conference tournament, they are potentially two-bid conferences.

Big South: Winthrop
Conference USA: Memphis
Western Athletic: Nevada

Now for the rest of the conferences (total current bids in parenthesis):

Atlantic 10 (1):
In – Xavier (automatic bid)
On the Bubble – Massachusetts

Atlantic Coast Conference (6):
In – North Carolina (automatic bid), Boston College, Duke, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Virginia
On the Bubble – Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State

Big 12 (5):
In – Kansas (automatic bid), Texas A&M, Texas, Texas Tech, Kansas State
On the Bubble – Oklahoma State

Big East (7):
In – Georgetown (automatic bid), Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Villanova, Louisville
On the Bubble – Syracuse

Big Ten (5):
In – Wisconsin (automatic bid), Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State, Illinois
On the Bubble – Purdue, Michigan

Colonial Athletic (2):
In – Virginia Commonwealth (automatic bid), Old Dominion
On the Bubble – Drexel

Horizon (2):
In – Wright State (automatic bid), Butler
On the Bubble – None

Missouri Valley (3):
In – Southern Illinois (automatic bid), Creighton, Missouri State
On the Bubble – Bradley

Mountain West (3):
In – BYU (automatic bid), UNLV, Air Force
On the Bubble – San Diego State

Pacific-10 (6):
In – UCLA (automatic bid), Oregon, Washington State, USC, Arizona, Stanford
On the Bubble – None

Southeastern (5):
In – Florida (automatic bid), Kentucky, Alabama, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
On the Bubble – Georgia

West Coast Conference (1):
In – Santa Clara (automatic bid)
On the Bubble – Gonzaga

Final Four In: Texas Tech, Alabama, West Virginia, Kansas State
First Four Out: Oklahoma State, San Diego State, Purdue, Georgia Tech

I am going to attempt to seed them today and post that later. Not sure how it will go since it is my first time seeding this year, so check back later today to see who gets what seed.

What team did I miss? What team doesn’t deserve to be on the list? We want to know what you think. Post your comments below. Do us a favor and click on a Google Ad on the sidebar as well. It’ll only take 10 seconds.

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