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Understand what you are looking at below. It is a CHECKPOINT of CURRENT MERIT, and not a prediction of what I think things will look like on Selection Sunday, nor is it an assessment of how good I think the teams actually are.
With that being said, there are teams that are not even in the bracket that I fully expect to make the NCAA Tournament. I think they will win enough big games to get there. It’s just that up until now, they haven’t. Louisville, Cincinnati, SMU, USC, Marquette, and even Saint Bonaventure are among teams that did not make this projection that I am expecting to make the field in March.
OTHERS CONSIDERED: SMU, Cincinnati, San Diego State, Marquette, Saint John’s, UCF, Louisville, Texas Tech, Ohio State, USC, Houston, BYU, Saint Bonaventure, Providence, Utah, Western Kentucky, Oregon, UNLV, Old Dominion, Wyoming, Northwestern, Nebraska, South Carolina, Colorado, Mississippi State, UCLA, Georgia Southern
OTHER NOTES:
-Temple has wins away from home against Auburn, Clemson, Old Dominion, and South Carolina. Those are all solid teams, and that is a high number of wins against solid teams away from home. They have two rough losses against La Salle and George Washington, but the home loss to Villanova isn’t that bad. I don’t they’re good enough to end up as a protected seed and don’t expect to see them anywhere near the #4 or #5 line in March, but for now they’re off to a great start.
-I expect Alabama to move up between now and the end. I like Loyola Chicago’s team, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see them land inside the bubble, but they have a thin margin for error given the league that they play in and getting blown out at Milwaukee in their last game didn’t help the complexion of their profile.
-Florida has some great wins that indicate they could be a solid protected seed. They’ve also lost three out of four to teams that are nowhere near a protected seed. They’re kind of hard to place, but a lot of teams at this juncture are hard to place.
-Speaking of Florida, Clemson picked up a big win over the weekend and they’re suddenly looking pretty good. They have just one loss on the year and a few decent wins to go along with that bloated record.
COMMENTS FROM OTHERS AT HOOPS HD
– From Chad: Grambling is on the APR list and not eligible for postseason play. #StupidPuppet