It’s been a busy weekend in college basketball. Here are the Bracketology headlines:
- Texas moves up to the top line. Their 10-5 Quadrant 1 record, including 6 wins against Quadrant 1A, is too good to ignore. Their blowout of West Virginia drops the Mountaineers to a 9.
- Tennessee drops down to a 3 after another buzzer-beater loss, this time at the hands of Missouri. The Tigers jump up to a 7.
- Creighton is on fire and they jump to a 5.
- Oklahoma State gets a huge win at Iowa State and jumps to a 7.
- Providence is now firmly in bubble territory after their fourth loss in their last five games.
- Mississippi State gets a huge win at Arkansas and jumps into the field.
- Kentucky remains in the bracket after losing at Georgia, but just barely.
- New Mexico drops out of the field with a bad loss at Air Force.
In the ACC,
- NC State moved up a line after blowing out Boston College
- UNC solidified their position a bit by blowing out Clemson
- Miami and Pitt avoided bad losses with wins over Louisville and FSU
- Virginia Tech and Wake Forest kept their faint hopes alive with wins over Notre Dame and Georgia Tech
A lot of bracketologists still have Clemson in. I don’t see it. They have two Quad 4 losses. At-large teams with two Quad 4 losses are extremely rare. Since 2016, there have been four: Providence 2017, Providence 2018, Baylor 2019, and Arizona State 2019. The first three of those teams had much stronger Quad 1 wins than the Tigers do. Arizona State 2019, well that was one of the oddest and most controversial selections in recent memory. Clemson is down to 77th in the NET. No team ranked lower than that has been selected as an at-large team since at least 2016, although Rutgers 2022 was exactly 77th. But they had six Quad 1 wins.
We can’t talk about yesterday without talking about Duke-Virginia. It’s odd to be in the position of defending Duke for being on the wrong end of a call, but that was a miscarriage of justice. Considering the circumstances – the importance of the situation, the fact that the replays clearly showed what happened and the officials had all the time they needed to review, and the fact that the correct call was made on the floor but was reversed – I think that’s the worst officiating decision I’ve ever seen.
From the explanations, I gather that the officials reasoned that the foul occurred not on the arm but with the body, and the body contact happened after the buzzer, therefore no foul. There are two things wrong with that. 1) That’s not the rule. 2) Yes, the foul absolutely did take place on the arm.
Let’s not overthink this. It doesn’t require knowledge of arcane rules. A guy went up for a shot and was hacked in the act before the clock ran out. Anyone with eyes could see it. Get the call right, and Duke very likely has a massive road win. With that win, Duke is probably a 7 seed, maybe a 6. As it is, I have them as a 9. That’s lower than Lunardi and most others, but if you forget about the name on the jersey and look at the blind resume, that’s where they belong.
Here’s the current bracket, with automatic bids in bold:
- Alabama, Purdue, Kansas, Texas
- Houston, Baylor, Arizona, UCLA
- Virginia, Tennessee, UConn, Xavier
- Gonzaga, Kansas State, Marquette, Indiana
- Iowa State, St. Mary’s, San Diego State, Creighton
- Miami, Illinois, TCU, Arkansas
- Florida Atlantic, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Auburn
- Maryland, Rutgers, Nevada, Michigan State
- West Virginia, NC State, Iowa, Duke
- Memphis, Northwestern, Boise State, Providence
- Mississippi State, UNC, Pitt, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Oregon
- College of Charleston, Oral Roberts, Drake, Liberty
- Southern Miss, VCU, Sam Houston, Kent St.
- Yale, Iona, Furman, UC Santa Barbara
- Youngstown St., Eastern Washington, Colgate, Vermont
- UNC Asheville, Northwestern St., Alcorn St., Howard, Morehead St., Fairleigh Dickinson
Last Four Byes: Boise State, Providence, Mississippi State, UNC
Last Four In (Play-in games): Pitt, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Oregon
First Four Out: USC, New Mexico, Utah State, Wisconsin
Next Four Out: College of Charleston (if they don’t get an automatic bid), North Texas, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall
And Even the Next Four Out After That: Arizona State, Florida, Wake Forest, Clemson