2009 Bracketology Thoughts

Maroon Eagle

All-American
May 24, 2006
17,843
7,596
102
The ratings come from Real Time. (x - means designated conference leader & thus the college in line for the auto bid; most are determined via tiebreakers and such except for the ACC--- Duke & UNC haven't played each other yet, so I've made Duke designated autobid recipient since they have the better RPI standing of the two).

1-seed
x1 Duke 20-3
x3 Oklahoma 23-1
x4 Connecticut 22-1
5 North Carolina 20-2

Four conference leaders of three of the top conferences. Duke hosts UNC Wednesday, which should be interesting. My nephew is a freshman at Duke, and he's been tenting for this game for a little over a week.

2-seed
x6 Xavier 20-3
x7 Michigan St. 19-4
x8 Memphis 20-3
2 Pittsburgh 20-2

Pittsburgh is #2 in RPI yet fourth in the Big East.

3-seed
9 Clemson 19-3
13 Louisville 17-4
14 Kansas 19-4
16 Wake Forest 17-3

4-seed
x10 Butler 20-2
17 Illinois 18-5
18 Florida St. 18-5
12 Villanova 19-4

Butler will more likely get a 5-seed when the Dance invitations arrive.

5-seed
19 Ohio St. 17-5
15 West Virginia 16-7
22 Marquette 20-3
x27 UCLA 19-4

UCLA is the best team in the Pac-10 and they get a 5-seed.

6-seed
11 Utah 16-6
24 Washington 16-6
21 Missouri 19-4
20 Tennessee 14-8

Utah is tied with SDSU for first, but the Aztecs have the tiebreaker. Tennessee is the highest rated SEC school on the board at 20, taking up an at-large spot. The Huskies are also the highest rated school in the Pac-10.

7-seed
23 Syracuse 17-6
25 Minnesota 17-5
29 California 18-6
30 Florida 19-4

The Gators really should be an 8-seed, but Siena will likely get dissed by the committee, so I'm going along with that.

8-seed
26 Dayton 21-2
32 UAB 16-8
35 Purdue 17-5
x33 Utah St. 22-1

Scary.

9-seed
39 Arizona St. 18-5
x28 Siena 18-6
34 Brigham Young 16-5
x38 Gonzaga 16-5

The 8-9 matchups should be interesting.

10-seed
x46 San Diego St. 15-5
41 USC 15-7
x55 LSU 18-4
42 Virginia Tech 14-7

The Aztecs have the tiebreaker in the MWC and get the autobid. LSU has the autobid with the best SEC conference mark.

11-seed
x49 Davidson 19-4
43 South Carolina 17-5
40 Miami (FL) 14-8
44 Texas 15-7

Davidson's loss to Charleston hurt their RPI big time. They need to win the Southern tournament to get a berth. No at-large bid for the Wildcats.

12-seed
51 Boston College 18-6
47 Temple 12-9
53 Arizona 16-8
50 Cincinnati 15-8

My best guess at the last four teams in the tournament.

13-seed
x62 West. Kentucky 16-7
x65 Northeastern 16-7
x79 Northern Iowa 16-6
x80 Buffalo 16-5

Autobids. The Missouri Valley has an outside shot at a second bid though, but as long as UNI is leading comfortably and with a 79 RPI, it will be difficult.

14-seed
x94 North Dakota St 16-5
x108 Weber St. 14-8
x115 Robert Morris 17-8
x128 Virginia Military 15-4

15-seed
x131 E. Tennessee St. 15-6
x134 Sam Houston St. 9-8
x145 Boston U. 14-9
x149 Morehead St. 12-11

16-seed
x163 Long Beach St. 12-10
x170 Holy Cross 12-11
x176 Morgan St. 12-10
Play-in
x220 Alabama St. 12-10
x247 Princeton 8-8

Last Four In: Look at the 12-seeds.

Last Four Out: Georgetown & Wisconsin (great scheduling, but poor last few games as of late) as well as Texas A&M (poor conference play) and Providence (which could still get in-- they have a 6-5 record in the Big East with winnable games ahead).