2014 Barnes Bracketology - Mar. 3

Less than 2 weeks now until Selection Sunday. In fact, some conference tournaments actually begin this week! With all due respect to Christmas, this truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Well, that is if you love college basketball and March Madness as much as I do.

MY PROJECTED FIELD OF 68
(changes in italics)

LOCKS: Getting close to Selection Sunday so added 3 more teams who I'm sure are getting in. Kansas State, New Mexico and VCU all won this past weekend, all but locking up their spot so here they are. I did flip-flop Arizona and Florida for the top seed. Remember, this is a fluid process and I change my mind a lot even between posts.

These are in order so you have an idea of how I rank the teams.

LOCKS (30): Arizona, Florida, Wichita State, Kansas, Duke, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, Syracuse, Creighton, Villanova, Louisville, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Saint Louis, San Diego State, Michigan State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, UCLA, Texas, UConn, Kentucky, UMass, Memphis, Kansas State, New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio State, VCU


AUTOS: Couple of changes in this group as we near some conference tournaments for some of them. Utah Valley and UC-Irvine are back in and High Point jumps in for the first time. Harvard is one win away from being the first time in bold for clinching its spot in the Big Dance.

Teams that have clinched their berth will appear in bold

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

AT-LARGE: Actually a decent weekend for many of the teams that were in this group from the last post. So that means not too much movement but we do welcome a new team. Dayton is back in after a big win over UMass. Minnesota drops out as their volatile regular season continues. Xavier is out of the "First Four" game thanks to a victory over Creighton.

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

AT-LARGE (16): Arizona State, SMU, George Washington, Pittsburgh, BYU, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Saint Joseph's, Baylor, Arkansas, Xavier, Oregon, California, Dayton, Tennessee

BUBBLE WATCH

BUBBLE: Now down to 26 teams in the Bubble category and soon, bubble will be bursting all over the place. The teams near the end have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it.

These are in order, so the teams after the last team in the AT-LARGE category are the first ones out.

BUBBLE (26): Arizona State, SMU, George Washington, Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, BYU, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Saint Joseph's, Baylor, Arkansas, Xavier, Oregon, California, Dayton, Tennessee, Minnesota, Nebraska, St. John's, Missouri, Providence, Georgetown, Florida State, LSU, Richmond

SEEDING

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

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

**Arizona is the overall top seed

Next update will come after Thursday's games.

MB