2013 Barnes Bracketology - Feb. 7

What a week of college basketball so far. Ohio State-Michigan. Kansas-TCU. Indiana-Illinois. Washington-UCLA. Last night alone, I saw 4 games that were decided in the final 20 seconds. It's called March Madness, not February Madness! All these fantastic finishes and upsets have made for long nights for this resident bracketologist. But this is what I signed up for.

MY PROJECTED FIELD OF 68
(changes in italics)

LOCKS: Not adding any teams to this list just yet. I'll probably add 3-4 teams, maybe more after this weekend. I know there are more than 12 teams that are securely but again, I don't want to take teams out if I don't have to. Again, expect this group to grow somewhat substantially by the next post.

LOCKS (12): Indiana, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Duke, Arizona, Michigan State, Syracuse, Louisville, Gonzaga, Ohio State, Miami (FL)



AUTOS: Not one change in this group.

Teams that have clinched their berth will appear in bold

AUTOS (20): America East - Stony Brook, Atlantic Sun - Mercer, Big Sky - Montana, Big South - Charleston Southern , Big West - Long Beach State, Colonial - Northeastern, Horizon - Valparaiso, Ivy - Harvard, MAAC - Iona, MAC - Akron, MEAC - Norfolk State, Northeast - Bryant, Ohio Valley - Belmont, Patriot - Bucknell, Southern - Davidson, Southland - Stephen F. Austin, SWAC - Southern, Summit - South Dakota State, Sun Belt - Middle Tennessee, WAC -Louisiana Tech

AT-LARGE: Lots of moving around in this category as you might expect. A lot of teams lost while others got some big wins. Teams like Colorado, Illinois and Indiana State all beat ranked teams to help their cause. For Illinois and Indiana State, their wins propelled them from BUBBLE status to AT-LARGE status. Bad loss though by Alabama knocks them out.

These are in order, so the last four teams will be playing in the "First Four" in Dayton

AT-LARGE (36): New Mexico, Butler, Kansas State, Marquette, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Creighton, Oregon, San Diego State, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, UCLA, Iowa State, NC State, Minnesota, Missouri, Georgetown, VCU, UNLV, Kentucky, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Colorado State, Memphis, Baylor, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ole Miss, Arizona State, Illinois, Temple, Indiana State, Saint Mary's, Maryland, La Salle

BUBBLE WATCH

BUBBLE: A lot of movement up and down among this group. Have to mention that over these 4 days, I found myself overvaluing and undervaluing certain teams. For instance, I took Saint Louis out of the 68-team field (despite winning handily on Wednesday) after looking at their resume closer. I added St. John's to the BUBBLE (and fairly close to getting in) after examining them closer. It's all part of the process. The changes will not normally be that drastic but in this case, it had to be done.

These are in order, so to figure out the first teams out, head to the final team from the AT-LARGE category and look for all the teams behind them.

BUBBLE (58): New Mexico, Butler, Kansas State, Marquette, Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Creighton, Oregon, San Diego State, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, UCLA, Iowa State, NC State, Minnesota, Missouri, Georgetown, VCU, UNLV, Kentucky, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Colorado State, Memphis, Baylor, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ole Miss, Arizona State, Illinois, Temple, Akron, Indiana State, Saint Mary's, Maryland, La Salle, Saint Louis, Virginia, St. John's, BYU, Alabama, Villanova, Charlotte, Louisiana Tech, Richmond, Arkansas, Southern Miss, Boise State, Ohio, Northwestern, Washington, Wyoming, Stanford, Florida State, UTEP, UMass, Texas A&M

SEEDING

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN
Big East (7), Big Ten (6), Big 12 (6), ACC (5), Pac-12 (5), A-10 (4), SEC (4), MWC (4), MVC (3), WCC (2)  

(Click on bracket to enlarge)
MIDWEST vs. WEST
EAST vs. SOUTH

**Michigan is the overall top seed

Next update will come after Sunday's games.

MB