Bracketogoly 165 – Feb 10th Edition

The March 10^th Bracket (Click to enlarge):

 T

his Bracket’s top storylines:

 USC rocketed up the standings after routing Stanford. The Trojans were this bracket’s biggest winner.Once upon a time, Maryland looked to be solidly in. Now, the Terps look to be headed to the NIT without a strong showing in the ACC tournament. Their this bracket’s biggest loser. Kentucky is sitting pretty after yesterday’s win over Florida. Quite a turnaround from the beginning of the season.Oregon returns to the bracket following thier weekend sweep of the Arizona schools. Ohio State also returns following thier come from behind win against Michigan State. Even Syracuse picked up a key win over Marquette to state thier case for a tournament bid.

VCU’s made every bubble team in the country cringe when they were upset my William and Mary in last night’s CAA Semifinal game. The Rams are now hanging on by a thread, while the Tribe will battle George Mason for the CAA Title tonight.  San Diego could pop another team’s bubble if they can knock off Gonzaga in the WCC final tonight.

Winthrop (Big South), Austin Peay (OVC), Oral Roberts (Summit) and Belmont (A-Sun) also punched thier ticket by winning thier conference tournaments. 6 of the Power 16 teams lost over the weekend, including all of Friday’s 4 seeds.Drake returns to the Power 16 following thier season sweep of the MVC.

Some guidelines to remmeber when reviewing the bracet:

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

-Automatic bids are awarded to either the highest remaining seed in a conference tournament (marked * in the bracket), or the conference champion (marked **)

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

tHe BrEaKdOwN:

LAST FOUR IN: Ohio State, Illinois State, Oregon, VCU.

FIRST FOUR OUT: Villanova, UAB, Temple, Western Kentucky

NEXT FOUR OUT: Arizona State, Ole Miss, Virginia Tech, Florida (They’re saying) Moooooooovers: New to the show: Ohio State, Oregon, George Mason, Winthrop, Sacred Heart, Utah State, Stephen F. Austin, UCSB

Show’s over: UAB, Maryland, Arizona State, Maryland, Virginia Tech, UNC-Asheville, Robert Morris, Lamar, Cal State Northridge

Conference-by-Conference (*Current Conference Leaders/Highest Remaining Seed, all teams are placed where they would be without the protection of an automatic bid )

Conference Champions, Bids Locked: **Cornell, **Belmont, **Winthrop, **Drake, **Austin Peay,

Big East (8 Bids)

Locked In: *Georgetown, Louisville, UConn, Marquette, Notre Dame

Nearly Locked In: Pitt, West Virginia

Solidly In:

On the Bubble, but in: Syracuse

On the Bubble, but out: Villanova

Big 12 (6 Bids)