Saturday was another day of upsets that affected both ends of the bracket.
The biggest was Virginia Tech beating Duke to win the ACC Tournament. That is the second major event that Duke has failed to win in coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final season. However, the bracket implication is that the Hokies stole a bid. I do not believe they were getting into the NCAA tournament without winning the ACC.
The team that is now out is SMU. The Mustangs lost to Memphis in the American Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals and fell out of the bracket. SMU has one of the worst strength of schedule rankings of any team competing for a spot in the field and has two bad losses, including one in Quad 4. The Mustangs have not done enough good to make up for that.
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The top seeds in the bracket are now set, I believe. Gonzaga should be the overall No. 1 on selection Sunday, followed by Pac-12 champion Arizona, Big 12 champion Kansas and reigning national champion Baylor.
There are no games left that can influence the top line of the bracket. Auburn and Kentucky are out of the SEC Tournament. Purdue did not get strong enough opponents in the Big Ten Tournament to make a push for the top line. The Boilermakers will face Iowa for the Big Ten title on Sunday immediately before the Selection Show.
Check out Palm’s latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
There are no bubble games left to be played, but there is one very important game to bubble teams on the Sunday schedule. Davidson will be playing to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship to go along with its regular season title. If Richmond wins that game, the Spiders will steal a bid, and that bid belongs to Xavier, which is currently the last team in the bracket.
Texas A&M has made a surprising run to the SEC Tournament championship game and will face Tennessee for that title.
In other action, Houston will face Memphis for the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship and Princeton will take on Yale for the Ivy League crown.
I may do some seed scrubbing later, and other adjustments may need to be made based on the results of Saturday’s games, but the bracket is coming into shape with the official announcement just hours away.
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