The first of what will be daily brackets going forward is up Friday and for the first time in over two weeks, there is a change on the top line. Houston has moved up to the fourth No. 1 seed following Florida’s loss at Georgia on Tuesday. The Gators are now a No. 2 seed and sixth overall behind Tennessee.
This battle isn’t over either. With three teams from the SEC among those fighting for top seeds, a conference tournament championship for one of them would make that team a No. 1 seed for sure.
Michigan State cannot be entirely ruled out of this chase either. The Spartans have home games left with Wisconsin and Michigan before the Big Ten Tournament. It would help them if Indiana made a surge. The home loss to the Hoosiers is the only Quad 2 loss for any of the top seven teams in the bracket..
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s bracket and full field of 68 at the Bracketology hub.
Battle at the bottom of the bracket
At the bottom of the bracket, Baylor and Wake Forest are out and have been replaced by Georgia and Boise State.
The Bears have lost four of their last five, most recently at also-ran Colorado and fellow bubbler Cincinnati. Baylor has dropped to 15-12 overall (only games against Division I opponents count), 8-11 against the top two quadrants and 10-12 against the top three quadrants. Those numbers almost never get a team in the field.
Wake Forest had a schedule set-up for success four games ago. The Demon Deacons had a road game at SMU which could be a good win and three games against noncontenders. Well, they won the road game and lost the others. Those are their three worst losses of the season. They have fallen to 71st in the NET, and while that does not eliminate them on its own, it’s a reflection of the kind of season they have had.
Missouri coach Dennis Gates is the key to the Tigers going from a winless SEC season to the NCAA Tournament
Dennis Dodd
New to the bracket are Georgia, coming off the aforementioned win over Florida, and Boise State, which beat Utah State for their seventh win in their last eight. A win over Mountain West leader New Mexico is also in that streak.
Georgia, along with Texas and Arkansas, seemingly swaps places around the cutline in every bracket. Arkansas is above the “last four in” for the first time since early January. This is the first time Texas has been in the first four out of consecutive brackets.
As usual, but not always, I had to do some juggling to get BYU in a Thursday-Saturday path through the tournament. This was relatively minor because I didn’t have to change anyone’s seeds, but the Cougars are in the same pod as Houston. It does not violate a bracketing rule, but it is still not preferable.
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