Bracketology by
David Dorman
My 16 top seeded teams for the tournament today are:
In seed list:
1: Auburn
2: Gonzaga
3: Baylor
4: Arizona
5: Kansas
6: Purdue
7: Villanova
8: Duke
9: Houston
10: Wisconsin
11: UCLA
12: Michigan State
13: LSU
14: Texas Tech
15: Providence
16: Xavier
The last 4 teams placed in my bracket were:
Boise State
Arkansas
Wyoming
Louisiana Tech
The first 4 teams left out of my bracket were:
Florida
North Carolina
Michigan
Mississippi State
A few notes on my bracket:
I only have 3 teams in my bracket from the ACC. This is not the ACC we are familiar with in terms of depth and talent.
That said UNC, Notre Dame & Florida State were very close to making this bracket and with a strong finish to January they could easily move in.
This year's field will have some of the strongest 13 & 14 seeds the NCAA Tournament has seen in a long time.
Those 8 teams (on my 13 & 14 seed line) can all win a game or two in this year's tournament. Most of these squads have upperclassmen at the guard spots, have won consistently this year and are well coached. For those reasons look at those teams to become "The Darlings of the Dance" this March.
This season has been complete chaos. Many teams have missed games due to the Covid shutdowns. Some of these games will be made up, giving these schools more opportunities than usual in January and February to impress the committee. The last 12 teams in my bracket are not much different than the first 12 teams I left out. Meaning, a few wins can shoot you up into this bracket and a few tough losses can knock you out. Look for plenty of movement in the bracket as we lead up to the tournament and bracket reveal on Selection Sunday, March 13.