Bracketolgoy 165 – March 7th Edition

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HERE’S THE LINK TO THE NEW BRACKET (3/7).  Remember, starting Monday, new brackets will be up every day up until the Selection Sunday.

This Bracket’s Top Story-Lines

Arizona State is hanging on by a thread after last night’s loss at Oregon.  The bad n ews for them is with a game against Oregon State this weekend, they won’t have a chance to make another statement until the Pac10 Tournament. Meanwhile, seven of the first eight teams out will have the opportunity to pick up statement wins (OSU vs. Michigan State, Syracuse vs. Marquette, Florida vs. Kentucky, Oregon vs. Arizona, Saint Joe’s vs Dayton, Southern Illinois in the MVC tournament, and Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt tourny) over the weekend and pass the Sun Devils.  They’d be in if the season ended today, but it’s tough to see them in Monday’s bracket.

No newcomers or drop-outs in today’s bracket, just some shuffling of seeds.

As I said in in yesterday’s Bolated Mid-Week Peek, there’s a surprising new trend among bubble teams: winning.  It seems that after a solid month of playing like crap, bubble teams everywhere are starting to step it up in the final moments.  Any of the past three week’s and St. Joe’s win over Xavier last night would have easily earned them a spot.  Now, they’ll need a win over Dayton on Saturday to have an argument for making the cut.

Speaking of that upset, Xavier falls off the second line with the loss.  Georgetown barely edged out Wisconsin for the right to that spot on the second line.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Duke and North Carolina play this weekend.  It’s kind of a big game.  Winner should punch thier ticket to the Charlotte Regional. 

UCLA’s win last night over Stanford was big.  Barring an upet loss to Cal, the Bruins should be on the first line in the Phoenix region on Selection Sunday.

I’m still in search of highlights from the Navy-Bucknell game from Wednesday night.  If you know of any, let me know!

The Ohio Valley, A-Sun, Big South, Horizon, and MVC all crown their conference champs this weekend.  If your team is on a “Last Four List”, root for Butler and  Illinois State (only against Southern Illinois) as hard as you possibly can.  It works, I swear.

Some guidelines to keep in mind when reading THE BRACKET:

-I operate under a “if the season ended today” scenario

-I do my damdest to abide by the Official NCAA Bracketing Guidelines.  

-Automatic bids are awarded to either the teams that would get it’s conference’s top seed if the tournament started today, or the highest remaining seed if the tournament has already started.  Those teams are marked with an * in the bracket.  Teams marked ** have clinched thier conference’s automatic bid.  Right now, that list is short: Cornell, but will be much bigger by Monday’s bracket.

tHe BrEaKdOwN:

LAST FOUR IN:Kentucky, New Mexico, UAB, Arizona State.

FIRST FOUR OUT: Ohio State, Villanova, Syracuse, Florid a

NEXT FOUR OUT: Oregon, St. Joe’s, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky

Conference-by-Conference (*Current Conference Leaders/Highest Remaining Seed, **Clinched Conference’s Automatic Bid, all teams are placed where they would be without the protection of an automatic bid )Big East (7 Bids)Locked In: *Georgetown, Louisville, UConn, Marquette, Notre Dame

Nearly Locked In: Pitt

Solidly In: West Virginia

On the Bubble, but in:

On the Bubble, but out: Villanova, Syracuse

Big 12 (6 Bids)