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March Madness bracketology: NCAA Tournament prediction has another shakeup
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- March Madness bracketology: NCAA Tournament prediction has another shakeup
This past Saturday, the NCAA men's basketball committee released its ranking of the top 16 teams , ostensibly providing a template to help professional and amateur observers visualize what the final bracket might look like in a few weeks . Within mere hours of that reveal, the template was effectively broken as half of the committee's top 10 teams lost . As if we needed a reminder, this is why the term March Madness is so engrained in the sport's vocabulary.
In any event, we've had to reexamine the committee's order and come up with a new template for our latest bracket projection. Duke, now topping the USA TODAY Sports coaches poll , strengthened its case for the No. 1 overall seed with its neutral-site victory against Michigan . Arizona also has an argument, with its win at Houston adding to an impressive list of high-end triumphs away from home. Michigan remains well-positioned as a top regional seed. Iowa State holds down the fourth No. 1, as its recent decision against Houston helps offset Saturday night's loss at Brigham Young.
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Houston is still very much in the No. 1 conversation but remains a 2 for now after a loss to Kansas on Monday. We also differ with the committee on Florida, which was outside the top 10 but projects as a No. 2 seed in our bracket. Purdue and Connecticut round out the second line.
Illinois, which lost a third consecutive overtime contest, might have missed out on its shot at heading a regional and slips to the third line along with Nebraska, Texas Tech and Gonzaga. The middle portion of the bracket wasn't drastically altered by the weekend's results, but there was a change on the fringe of the at-large pool as UCLA, thanks to its buzzer-beater against Illinois, replaces rival Southern California in the field.
March Madness bracketology: NCAA Tournament projection
March Madness last four in
TCU, New Mexico, UCLA, Santa Clara.
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March Madness first four out
Southern California, California, Virginia Commonwealth, San Diego State.
NCAA tournament bids conference breakdown
Multi-bid leagues: Big Ten (10), SEC (10), ACC (8) Big 12 (8), Big East (3), West Coast (3), Mountain West (2).
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: March Madness predictions: Latest men's NCAA tournament bracketology
