NCAA Tournament Bracket Prediction - March 7, 2018

NCAA Tournament Bracket Prediction - March 7, 2018

I am warming up to Gonzaga being seeded higher than I originally thought.  They look really, really good and they fit naturally in the 4/5 line with all the West Coast sites being bunched there.  The NCAA wants to sell tickets, right?

I am also flipping Cincinnati and Auburn this morning.  If Auburn wins the SEC tournament it will be a different story.

Finally, I want to address St. Mary's one last time.  The Gaels had a great season going 28-5.  The argument for some will be how can you take some of these middle road power conference schools over St. Mary's when they have 11, 12, maybe 13 losses.  St. Mary's scheduled 3 teams from the power conferences.  They played Georgia, who finished 11th in the SEC and Washington State and Cal, who finished 11th and 12th in the 12 team PAC-12.  St. Mary's record in those games...1-2.  Fellow bubble teams Utah and Washington both went 3-0 against those schools.  St. Mary's couldn't beat the back-end power conference schools.  Why do they deserve a bid over the ones that are better than that?

Games start to increase today and tomorrow will be the day with the most teams in action.  Lots of sorting out to be done yet. 

Seeds

1's - Virgina, Villanova, Xavier, Kansas
2's - Duke, Purdue, North Carolina, Cincinnati
3's - Michigan State, Tennessee, Auburn, Michigan
4's - Arizona, Wichita State, Texas Tech, Clemson
5's - West Virginia, Florida, Ohio State, Gonzaga
6's - Kentucky, Miami FL, Houston, TCU
7's - Texas A&M, Nevada, Arkansas, Virginia Tech
8's - Florida State, Seton Hall, Missouri, Rhode Island
9's - NC State, Creighton, Oklahoma, St. Bonaventure
10's - UCLA, Providence, Butler, Arizona State
11's - Kansas State, Texas (Marquette, USC, Syracuse, Baylor)
12's - Middle Tennessee, Loyola, New Mexico State, Buffalo
13's - Louisiana, South Dakota State, Charleston, Murray State
14's - Montana, Vermont, Bucknell, UNCG
15's - Iona, Penn, Wright State, UC-Davis
16's - Lipscomb, Radford (Texas Southern, Bethune-Cookman, Long Island, SE Louisiana)

Still in consideration - Alabama, St. Mary's, Louisville, Utah, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Washington, Oregon


SOUTH (ATLANTA)
1  Virgina (Pittsburgh)
2  Cincinnati (Nashville)
3  Auburn (Dallas)
4  Texas Tech (San Diego)
5  Ohio State (San Diego)
6  Miami FL (Dallas)
7  Arkansas (Nashville)
8  Seton Hall (Pittsburgh)
9  Oklahoma (Pittsburgh)
10 Butler (Nashville)
11 Baylor/USC (Detroit)
12 Middle Tennessee (Boise)
13 Louisiana (Boise )
14 Bucknell (Detroit)
15 UC-Davis (Nashville)
16 SE Louisiana/Long Island (Pittsburgh)

EAST (BOSTON)
1  Villanova (Pittsburgh)
2  Duke (Charlotte)
3  Michigan State (Detroit)
4  Wichita State (Boise)
5  Gonzaga (Boise)
6  Kentucky (Dallas)
7  Nevada (Charlotte)
8  Rhode Island (Pittsburgh)
9  NC State (Pittsburgh)
10 Providence (Charlotte)
11 Texas (Dallas)
12 Buffalo (San Diego)
13 Murray State (San Diego)
14 UNCG (Dallas)
15 Penn (Charlotte)
16 Radford (Pittsburgh)

MIDWEST (OMAHA)
1  Xavier (Nashville)
2  Purdue (Detroit)
3  Tennessee (Dallas)
4  Clemson (Boise)
5  West Virginia (Boise)
6  TCU (Wichita)
7  Virginia Tech (Detroit)
8  Missouri (Nashville)
9  St. Bonaventure (Nashville)
10 UCLA (Detroit)
11 Marquette/Syracuse (Wichita)
12 Loyola (Boise)
13 South Dakota State (Boise)
14 Montana (Wichita)
15 Wright State (Detroit)
16 Bethune-Cookman/Texas Southern (Nashville)

WEST (LOS ANGELES)
1  Kansas (Wichita)
2  North Carolina (Charlotte)
3  Michigan (Dallas)
4  Arizona (San Diego)
5  Florida (San Diego)
6  Houston (Dallas)
7  Texas A&M (Charlotte)
8  Florida State (Wichita)
9  Creighton (Wichita)
10 Arizona State (Charlotte)
11 Kansas State (Dallas)
12 New Mexico State (San Diego)
13 Charleston (San Diego)
14 Vermont (Dallas)
15 Iona (Charlotte)
16 Lipscomb (Wichita)