2018 Barnes Bracketology - Feb. 26

Time is running out for a lot of teams to do what they need to do to clinch their spot. And judging by the results of the past week, many of them are not taking advantage of the opportunities in front of them. There were a ton of losses by teams firmly on the bubble. The teams are the top pretty much held serve so not many changes there but with conference tournament quickly approaching, there is plenty to be figured out.

MY PROJECTED FIELD OF 68
(changes in italics)

LOCKS: Added 3 more teams to the mix. Houston moves in, as does Miami (FL) and Butler. Alabama is barely holding on to their spot and I actually moved Missouri out, which I hate to do but 2 losses this past week, including one at home to a struggling Ole Miss team. Not a lot of movement among the teams that were already in.

These are in order so you know how I rank these teams right now.

LOCKS (34): Virginia, Villanova, Xavier, Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State, Auburn, Purdue, Cincinnati, Clemson, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Ohio State, Arizona, Gonzaga, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wichita State, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, Arkansas, Creighton, Texas A&M, TCU, Saint Mary's, Miami (FL), Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Butler, Houston, Arizona State, Alabama


AUTOS: Made a few changes to the group. Conference tournaments begin this week so we will soon get some teams in bold soon, highlighting their confirmed spot in the field of 68.

Teams that have clinched their berth will appear in bold

AUTOS (22): America East - Vermont, Atlantic Sun - Florida Gulf Coast, Big Sky - Montana, Big South - Winthrop, Big West - UCSB, Colonial - Charleston, Conference-USA - Middle Tennessee, Horizon - Wright State, Ivy - Penn, MAAC - Rider, MAC - Buffalo, MEAC - Bethune-Cookman, Missouri Valley - Loyola-Chicago, Northeast - Wagner, Ohio Valley - Murray State, Patriot - Bucknell, Southern - UNC-Greensboro, Southland - Nicholls, SWAC - Grambling, Summit - South Dakota State, Sun Belt - Louisiana, WAC - New Mexico State

AT-LARGE: What a group this is. All of them have mediocre records and resumes but you have to put teams into the field. All of them are capable of beating any of the top teams but they also can lose terrible games. You could shuffle up this order a million ways.

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

AT-LARGE (12): Missouri, Florida, Virginia Tech, Louisville, USC, St. Bonaventure, Florida State, NC State, Providence, Syracuse, Washington, Kansas State

BUBBLE WATCH

BUBBLE: So now we have just 24 teams in this group. And like I said, this group is less than stellar. I expect this group to see lot of shuffling in the next 2 weeks. Not fun but certainly interesting.

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 (24): Missouri, Middle Tennessee, Florida, Virginia Tech, Louisville, USC, St. Bonaventure, Florida State, NC State, Providence, Syracuse, Washington, Kansas State, Texas, Nebraska, UCLA, Utah, Baylor, Boise State, Loyola-Chicago, Western Kentucky, Mississppi State, Penn State, Temple, New Mexico State

SEEDING

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN
ACC (10), SEC (8), Big 12 (6), Big East (6), Pac-12 (4), Big Ten (4), American (2), Atlantic-10 (2), West Coast (2)

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

**Virginia is the overall top seed

Questions? Comments?  Sound off on my Twitter or Facebook and I'll answer any questions. Next update comes most like on Monday, but possibly Tuesday.

MB