Jabe's Bracket - March 10, 2011

Today's update includes the switch I pondered yesterday...moving Notre Dame to the 1-line and Duke to the 2-line, but allowing Duke to play in the East regional.  Ohio State might not like it, but with North Carolina as the next option there, is it really much different?  Ultimately, the ACC tournament could be for the right to go to Newark vs New Orleans, depending on how Notre Dame fairs in the Big East Tourney.  Newark would be the preferred destination for the Irish too, but c'mon, who are we fooling as to which teams usually get what they want.

Other results from yesterday...in the middle of the bracket, Connecticut solidified at least a 5-seed and now competes with St. John's and Louisville for the last 4's.  Georgetown's loss creates bracketing headaches.  The resume is no lower than a 6, but the Chris Wright injury may cost them another spot.  I just don't see ODU moving to the 6-line, so Vandy or Temple would have to steal that spot at this point.  West Virginia stayed on the 5-line despite their early Big East exit, but we will keep an eye on Cincinnati, Xavier, Texas A&M and Kansas State over the next few days.

In the bubble watch, Marquette locked up a bid in my bracket with the neutral win vs West Virginia.  The most impressive thing is that they needed to win, fell behind in the game, but stepped-up like an NCAA tournament team needs to and pulled out the victory.  Colorado survived to see another day and could lock-up their bid with a Marquette-like performance vs Kansas State today.  A Colorado loss is not an automatic out now, but they will sweat out the C-USA, Big 10 and Pac-10 tourneys.

Thursday is a veritable buffet of bracket-altering games, so Jabe's Bracket will be back tomorrow.  Anyone who reads this want an update of the records vs teams in/under consideration?  Leave me a comment and I will drop Baylor out of it and update for Wednesday's action.