Buh-bye, Bid Stealers.
In our eyes, it’s pretty simple: the bubble won’t be changing today. All potential bid stealers playing on Saturday – Ohio State, Vanderbilt, UAB, Tulane, and Cincinnati – all lost. That means our projected 68 teams won’t be changing from now until the afternoon when the final bracket is released.
News & Notes
- With Arizona’s win over UCLA, Purdue likely doesn’t need to beat Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament Championship to seal a No. 1 seed. In reality, UCLA will either be the No. 1 seed in the West OR the No. 2 seed in the West.
- While we believe UCLA is the better team, the Big Ten was a much better conference than the Pac-12 this season, and Purdue’s resume is ever-so-slightly better than UCLA’s.
- Marquette moved past Baylor onto the 2-line by sweeping the Big East titles.
- Kansas, even if Alabama wins the SEC Tournament title, should still be the No. 1 overall seed.
- We’re pretty confident in the bottom of the bracket, but your guess as to the order is as good as ours. The First Four will likely be made up of four of the following eight teams: Arizona State, Mississippi State, NC State, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Utah State, Providence, Boise State.
- “The Duke Treatment” will be interesting. This is, by far, the worst ACC in the past 20 years. The Blue Devils are looking great, having won nine straight capped by Saturday night’s ACC Conference title, but the conference as a whole is bad. There are three good-not-great teams in Virginia, Duke, and Miami, and they should be scattered on the 4/5 lines.
LAST 4 IN: NC State, Mississippi State, Arizona State, Rutgers
FIRST 4 OUT: Oklahoma State, Nevada, Vanderbilt, Oregon
NEXT 4 OUT: Clemson, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin
