It's Almost March!

March is right around the corner so time to fire up another bracket as we approach the end of conference play:

1 Seeds: UVA, Duke, Gonzaga, Kentucky
2 Seeds: Michigan State, UNC, Tennessee, Michigan
3 Seeds: Houston, Marquette, Texas Tech, LSU
4 Seeds: Purdue, Kansas, Wisconsin, Florida State
5 Seeds: Kansas State, Maryland, Nevada, Iowa State
6 Seeds: Virginia Tech, Miss State, Buffalo, Iowa
7 Seeds: Louisville, Cincinnati, Washington, Auburn
8 Seeds: Villanova, Baylor, Texas, Ole Miss
9 Seeds: Oklahoma, Ohio State, St. Johns, Syracuse
10 Seeds: NC State, TCU, VCU, Wofford
11 Seeds: UCF, Florida, Utah State, Temple
12 Seeds: Arizona State, Seton Hall, Minnesota, Alabama, Belmont, Lipscomb
13 Seeds: NM State, Yale, Old Dominion, Vermont
14 Seeds: Hofstra, UC-Irvine, South Dakota State, Montana
15 Seeds: Texas State, Radford, UL-Chicago, Wright State
16 Seeds: Bucknell, Rider, Norfork State, St. Francis PA, Sam Houston State, Prarie View A&M




The hardest part of this bracket (and bracketology this year) is actually the Southern conference, they appear to be 4 deep but none of them actually got non-conf wins to prove it, this conference desperately could have used that old mid-major weekend to prove it belongs on the level of an A-10 this year... I can't give the league 2 bids without any wins... but if the bubble starts weakening, I might change my mind

2019 First Bracket

Little later than I expected to post the first bracket but I was really happy with my results last year by waiting and not getting caught up in early brackets and having that influence my opinion because the committee members aren't doing that so by mimicking the committee I feel I had much better results.

This year NET instead of RPI will be the big change and no one knows how the committee will use and value that which could lead to big extremes. With that being said lets get to the 1st bracket of the 2019 season:

1 Seeds: Duke, Virginia, Tennessee, Gonzaga
2 Seeds: Michigan, Kentucky, Michigan State, Kansas
3 Seeds: UNC, Houston, Purdue, Marquette
4 Seeds: LSU, Nevada, Louisville, Wisconsin
5 Seeds: Iowa State, Villanova, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech
6 Seeds: Kansas State, Maryland, Florida State, Cincinnati
7 Seeds: Iowa, Miss State, Auburn, Washington
8 Seeds: Buffalo, Ohio State, Baylor, Syracuse
9 Seeds: TCU, Ole Miss, Texas, St. Johns
10 Seeds: Wofford, NC State, Oklahoma, Alabama
11 Seeds: Minnesota, Lipscomb, ASU, Clemson
12 Seeds: VCU, Indiana, UCF, Seton Hall, Butler, Belmont
13 Seeds: NM State, Hofsta, Vermont, Old Dominion
14 Seeds: Yale, UC-Irivne, South Dakota State, Northern Kentucky
15 Seeds: Texas State - San Marcos, Radford, UL-Chicago, Bucknell
16 Seeds: Montana, Sam Houston State, Norfork State, Prarie View A&M, Robert Morris, Monmouth


Notes:

- I think the SEC will have more staying power as their non-conf wins should hold up this year

- The Pac-12 could be in trouble again, it's hard to imagine it being a 1 bid league but at this point I think 1 is more likely than 3 bids which is shocking cause you didn't think it could get worse.

- Saint Louis's implosion could really hurt the A-10 when it comes to at-large bids, maybe if they can get hot and get to 20 wins heading into the tournament that win will look better


Look for weekly updates heading into conf tournament week when they will become close to daily updates.

As always if you got comments leave them below or tweet @BBracketologist