2014 Barnes Bracketology - Feb. 17

Syracuse escapes again. Arizona loses with the help of some incompetent refs down the stretch. Michigan and Michigan State lose at home. And OT and double OT galore! Just another weekend in college basketball. It was exciting to watch and just as exciting to see how it would affect my latest bracket projections with now 4 weeks until Selection Sunday.

MY PROJECTED FIELD OF 68
(changes in italics)

LOCKS: UConn has been bumped up to this group after a solid OT win over another strong team in Memphis. Still at just 23 teams in this group. Over the next 2 weeks, this group will grow pretty quickly as there will be less room for teams to really tank and fall out. These are in order so you have an idea of what my S-Curve looks like.

LOCKS (23): Syracuse, Florida, Arizona, Wichita State, Kansas, Duke, Creighton, Michigan State, Cincinnati, Villanova, Michigan, Saint Louis, San Diego State, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Kentucky, Iowa, Louisville, Oklahoma, UConn, Pittsburgh



AUTOS: Couple of changes to this group since last week. Southern Miss has lost 2 of their last 3 so I replaced them with Louisiana Tech in Conference USA. Also, I like what I see from New Mexico State so they replace Utah Valley in the WAC.

Teams that have clinched their berth will appear in bold

AUTOS (22): America East - Vermont, Atlantic Sun - Mercer, Big Sky - Weber State, Big South - Coastal Carolina, Big West - UC-Irvine, Colonial - Delaware, Conference-USA - Louisiana Tech, Horizon - Green Bay, Ivy - Harvard, MAAC - Iona, MAC - Toledo, MEAC - NC Central, Northeast - Robert Morris, Ohio Valley - Belmont, Patriot - Boston Univ., Southern - Davidson, Southland - Stephen F. Austin, SWAC - Southern, Summit - North Dakota State, Sun Belt - Georgia State, WAC - New Mexico State, WCC - Gonzaga

AT-LARGE: Just the normal shakeups here as teams that were near the bottom have fallen out with bad losses and some new teams joined thanks to just simply winning. The order has been mixed up a bit as well as teams like North Carolina (vs. Pitt) and Arizona State (vs. Arizona) had some very quality victories.

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

AT-LARGE (23): Memphis, UCLA, North Carolina, Ohio State, Kansas State, Arizona State, SMU, UMass, VCU, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, California, Stanford, George Washington, St. Joseph's, Missouri, Richmond, Tennessee, Dayton, Xavier, BYU

BUBBLE WATCH

BUBBLE: You would think teams on the bubble would play better when they know their tourney hopes are on the line. But teams like LSU, Ole Miss, Saint Mary's and Clemson apparently don't understand. All 4 teams are in real trouble after losses in games they definitely needed to win to help their resumes. They aren't the only ones though.

I added a few teams to this group simply because it looked a little small and with 4 weeks to go, I know there are plenty of teams who may still have a shot to play well enough and get into the field. These are in order.

BUBBLE (36): Memphis, UCLA, North Carolina, Ohio State, Kansas State, Arizona State, SMU, Gonzaga, UMass, VCU, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, California, Stanford, George Washington, St. Joseph's, Missouri, Richmond, Tennessee, Dayton, Xavier, BYU, Georgetown, St. John's, LSU, Providence, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Nebraska, Florida State, Saint Mary's, Clemson, Indiana State, West Virginia

SEEDING

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

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

**Syracuse is the overall top seed

Next update will come after Thursday's games.

MB