Barnes Bracketology - March 11th

Tuesday wasn't the most exciting day but it did provide some mini-fireworks. Butler's loss to Cleveland State in their title game took away another at-large berth. Two more schools wrapped up bids. And the Big East tournament began with former Bubble teams Cincinnati and Georgetown continuing their monumental freefalls from NCAA Tournament consideration.

MY PROJECTED FIELD OF 65
(new teams in italics)

LOCKS: Nothing new here again. The teams that won their tourney titles are in the AUTO category. Other than that, none of the games yesterday really impacted this category.

LOCKS (32): Duke, UNC, Clemson, Florida St, Wake, Pitt, UConn, L'Ville, Villanova, West Virginia, Syracuse, Marquette, Michigan St, Illinois, Purdue, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Washington, UCLA, Arizona St, LSU, Utah, Memphis, Xavier, Butler, Gonzaga, Texas, Tennessee, California, Texas A+M and Ohio State.

AUTO: We have a few new bolded names in the category. One is ND State, who won a thriller against Oakland in the Summit League Championship. Another is a bit of a shocker as Cleveland State upset Butler and earned a spot in the Big Dance. Finally, Western Kentucky won its conference title and is now safely in. Also, we have a new projection. Weber State was upset in the Big Sky tourney, ending their NCAA dreams. Portland State takes their place.

AUTO (21): Binghamton (Am. East), East Tennessee St (A-Sun), Portland State (Big Sky), Radford (Big South), Long Beach St (Big West), VCU (Colonial), Cleveland State (Horizon), Cornell (Ivy), Siena (MAAC), Buffalo (MAC), Morgan St (MEAC), Northern Iowa (MVC), Robert Morris (Northeast), Morehead St (Ohio Valley), American (Patriot), Chattanooga (SoCon), Stephen F. Austin (Southland), Alabama St (SWAC), ND State (Summit), Western Kentucky (Sun Belt), and Utah St (WAC)

AT-LARGE: Not good news to report on this front. With Cleveland State beating Butler, it means an AT-LARGE is being bumped out. In this case, it is South Carolina. They can work their way back in with a good SEC tournament showing. The next team out though is St. Mary's and their season is over. This is gonna be a fun 5 days.

AT-LARGE (12): BYU, OKST, Michigan, Dayton, Wisconsin, Minnesota, BC, UNLV, Penn State, Arizona, Providence, and St. Mary's

BUBBLE WATCH

Depsite losing in their conference championship, Butler is safely in the tournament. No other teams were in action so no changes to the list here. But again, we are down to 12 AT-LARGE spots and 25 BUBBLE teams.

BUBBLE (25): BC, VT, Providence, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Penn St, OKST, Kansas St, Arizona, South Carolina, Florida, BYU, UNLV, San Diego St, Dayton, Utah St, Creighton, St. Mary's, Rhode Island, Davidson, New Mexico, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, and Temple.

SEEDING

A couple minor changes have been made to accommodate Cleveland State in the tournament. Pretty much all I did was slide VCU into South Carolina's 12 seed. VCU is plenty good enough to be in that spot. Cleveland State takes a 13 seed. Other than that, I shook around some 13-16 seeds. Plus, I corrected a mistake I have been making by having Vermont in my bracket despite their elimination from their tournament. Binghamton is now my projected winner of the America Eats tournament and therefore, are in where Vermont had been.

SOUTH-WEST vs. MIDWEST-EAST (Click on bracket for enlarged version)

SOUTH REGION (Memphis)
1 North Carolina vs. 16 Morgan State (Greensboro)
2 Michigan State vs. 15 Chattanooga (Minneapolis)
3 Wake Forest vs. 14 Western Kentucky (Miami)
4 Syracuse vs. 13 Buffalo (Boise)
5 Arizona State vs. 12 St. Mary's (Boise)
6 Butler vs. 11 Arizona (Miami)
7 West Virginia vs. 10 Dayton (Minneapolis)
8 Texas A+M vs. 9 Ohio State (Greensboro)

MIDWEST REGION (Indianapolis)
1 Pittsburgh vs. 16 Long Beach St/Alabama St (Dayton)
2 Duke vs. 15 Morehead State (Greensboro)
3 Kansas vs. 14 East Tennessee St (Boise)
4 LSU vs. 13 Cleveland State (Miami)
5 Purdue vs. 12 Northern Iowa (Miami)
6 Marquette vs. 11 UNLV (Boise)
7 California vs. 10 Wisconsin (Greensboro)
8 BYU vs. 9 Oklahoma St (Dayton)

EAST REGION (Boston)
1 UConn vs. 16 Robert Morris (Philadelphia)
2 Oklahoma vs. 15 Stephen F. Austin (Kansas City)
3 Villanova vs 14 Cornell (Philadelphia)
4 UCLA vs. 13 Portland State (Portland)
5 Illinois vs. 12 VCU (Portland)
6 Florida State vs. 11 Minnesota (Philadelphia)
7 Gonzaga vs. 10 Siena (Kansas City)
8 Tennessee vs. 9 Boston College (Philadelphia)

WEST REGION (Phoenix)
1 Memphis vs. 16 Radford (Kansas City)
2 Louisville vs. 15 American (Dayton)
3 Missouri vs. 14 Binghamton (Minneapolis)
4 Washington vs. 13 ND State (Portland)
5 Clemson vs. 12 Providence (Portland)
6 Xavier vs. 11 Penn State (Minneapolis)
7 Utah vs. 10 Michigan (Dayton)
8 Texas vs. 9 Utah State (Kansas City)

WEDNESDAY'S GAMES TO WATCH
DePaul vs. Providence - A win by the Friars does not help their standing at all since DePaul is terrible. But a loss will keep them for getting in the tournament.
Iowa State vs. Oklahoma State - The Cowboys are on the verge of clinching their spot. A win here should keep them safe on Selection Sunday. A loss will keep them shaking.
Montana State vs. Portland State (Big Sky Championship) - With Weber State out of the mix, one of these no-name teams is going to playing in the NCAA tournament.

So there you go. Another day of Barnes Bracketology in the books. Comments section is below in case you want to let me know what you think. Time is running out to get your opinions in. Until tomorrow, enjoy all the games!