NCAA Tournament Bracket Projections -- March 15, 2009 (FINAL)

Following the exhaustive breakdown late last night, our focus in today’s post is brevity. That said, here is PHSports’s Final 65.

A few noteworthy points before we delve into the seeds and pairings ...
* San Diego State was knocked out as a result of Mississippi State winning the SEC Tournament. As a side note, was that not the worst officiating in a single minute of basketball since 1972?

* St. Mary’s is an 11 seed due to seeding conflicts for Texas A&M and Penn State. Speaking of A&M, if less than four of the five Big XII teams ahead of them find themselves on the bottom part of the bracket (i.e. seeds 2,3,6,7,10,11,14,15), they can earn a #10 seed.

* Despite exclusion from PHSports, I would not be shocked one bit to see Wisconsin in the field. I just do not understand the love. Their best non-conference win was at NIT-team Virginia Tech and their best win was versus Illinois (their only win in five tries against the 3 Big Ten teams who were clearly in the NCAA Tournament prior to the conference tournament). Against those teams, Penn State, who had the same conference record as Wisconsin and is on the outside looking in due to an excessive focus on the OOC SOS, won 4 games in 7 attempts – two of which were away from Happy Valley. Wisconsin’s best non-home win was against Michigan on Jan 1.

* Memphis does not deserve a 1 seed. If they get it over UConn, then the Selection Committee did not compare the resumes and drastically overvalued the loss of Jerome Dyson.

The Seedings
1: North Carolina, LOUISVILLE (Big East), Pittsburgh, UConn
2: DUKE (ACC), MEMPHIS (C-USA), Michigan State, Kansas
3: Syracuse, Villanova, Missouri, Oklahoma
4: Washington, Wake Forest, Florida State, GONZAGA (WCC)
5: PURDUE (Big Ten), Xavier, Arizona State, Clemson
6: West Virginia, UCLA, UTAH (MWC), Illinois
7: Tennessee, Texas, Marquette, Ohio State
8: Butler, BYU, LSU, California
9: SIENA (Metro Atlantic), USC (PAC 10), Oklahoma State, Michigan
10: Dayton, Minnesota, Boston College, Maryland
11: TEMPLE (A-10), UTAH STATE (WAC), CLEVELAND STATE (Horizon), St. Mary’s
12: Texas A&M, Penn State, MISSISSIPPI STATE (SEC), VCU (CAA)
13: NORTHERN IOWA (MVC), WESTERN KENTUCKY (Sun Belt), AMERICAN (Patriot), STEPHEN F. AUSTIN (Southland)
14: NORTH DAKOTA STATE (Summit), BINGHAMTON (America East), PORTLAND STATE (Big Sky), Akron (MAC)
15: ROBERT MORRIS (Northeast), E. TENNESSEE STATE (Atlantic Sun), CORNELL (Ivy), RADFORD(Big South)
16: MORGAN STATE (MEAC), MOREHEAD STATE (Ohio Valley), CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE (Big West), ALABAMA STATE (SWAC), CHATTANOOGA (Southern)

Last Four In: Minnesota, Texas A&M, Penn State, St. Mary’s
Last Four Out: San Diego State, Arizona, Wisconsin, Creighton
Next Four Out: Auburn, Tulsa, Virginia Tech, Niagara

Seeding Summary (Multi-Bid Conferences Only in Order of Percentage)
Big Ten: 7/11
ACC: 7/12
Big XII: 6/12
Pac-10: 5/10
Big East: 7/16
SEC: 3/12
Mountain West: 2/9
West Coast: 2/9
A-10: 3/14
Horizon: 2/10


The PHSports Bracket