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My goodness gracious what a wild week of college hoops it was! Purdue… upset! Kansas… upset! Houston… upset! Arizona… upset! Kentucky… upset! And all by unranked teams, mind you. I don't know, the calendar may say it's smack dab in the middle of January, but it's feeling more and more like March by the day if you ask me. All I'm missing is a Shamrock Shake in my hand and the Jim Nantz narrated commercial for “A Tradition unlike any other… The Masters,” and we'd be all set.
Bracketology Bracket
Bracketology Breakdown
Top Seeds: Purdue (Midwest Region), Connecticut (East Region), Kansas (South Region), Houston (West Region)
Multi-Bid Leagues: AAC (2), ACC (5), Big East (6), Big Ten (6), Big 12 (8), Mountain West (4), Pac-12 (4), SEC (8), WCC (2)
Bracketology Bubble Watch
Last Four Byes: Ole Miss, Ohio State, Nebraska, Seton Hall
Last Four In: South Carolina, Miami FL, Colorado, Wake Forest
First Four Out: New Mexico, Texas, Providence, Northwestern
Next Four Out: Indiana State, Cincinnati, James Madison, NC State
Five Most Intriguing Games of the Week
Villanova at Marquette – Mon. Jan. 15th, 2:30 PM ET, FOX
Iowa State at BYU – Tue. Jan. 16th, 9:00 PM ET, ESPN2
Creighton at Connecticut – Wed. Jan. 17th, 7:00 PM ET, FS1
Nevada at San Diego State – Wed. Jan. 17th, 11:00 PM ET, CBS Sports
Alabama at Tennessee – Sat. Jan. 20th, 2:00 PM ET, ESPN2
And One!
Last week with my And One! prediction, I took a shot on Washington, an underdog, to win outright in the National Championship Game against Michigan, a prediction that looked like it had hope until the Wolverines blew the doors open in the 4th quarter. Regardless, Michigan and Washington was my preseason pick for the National Championship Game matchup — I had Michigan winning, and talked myself out of it as the season went along — so in the spirit of that prediction, I'm going to use my And One! prediction today to take a stab at a prediction on who will win each of the major conference tournaments — ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — come the second week in March. The season is unofficially at it's halfway point, so it's worth checking on anyway. So, with that said …
ACC – In my humble opinion, we've got a two-team race between the usual suspects to see who the top team in the ACC really is. We've yet to see Duke and North Carolina play each other — we've gotta wait until February 3rd for their first meeting — and however those two games between the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels go may tell us who will get the ACC's automatic bid into the tournament. As for now, I'm reluctantly taking Duke, with North Carolina as a close second, and NC State (currently out of the field and in my “Next Four Out”) as a lingering sleeper who could cause some problems down the road.
Big East – Both my head and my heart say that Connecticut is not only the best team in the Big East, but potentially the entire country.
Big Ten – Like last year, I feel like Purdue is going to win the Big Ten tournament, and be in danger of an early exit in the NCAA Tournament yet again. Perhaps not an embarrassing 16-over-1 upset for the second consecutive year, but if Purdue hooks the wrong sort of opponent in the 2nd round, look out.
Big 12 – The single toughest conference to predict, in my opinion. There are realistically seven different teams — Kansas, Houston, Baylor, BYU, TCU, Texas Tech and Iowa State — that I could see winning the Big 12 Conference Tournament. Apologies for being a bore, but I'm going chalk… and by that, I mean Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk. Give me Kansas.
Pac-12 – I continue to wait for Arizona to separate themselves from the rest of the Pac-12 field, and the Wildcats continue to stumble, dropping games to Stanford and Washington State in the last two weeks. But do I really trust Utah or Colorado? Does current Pac-12 leader, Oregon, have what it takes to secure the conference's at-large bid come March? I feel better about Arizona than any of those four teams.
SEC – Along with the Big 12, this is the best conference in the country, top to bottom, I've seen this year, and to take it one step further, I think there are more teams in the SEC that I can envision making a Final Four run than any other conference. The best of the bunch in my opinion is Auburn, partially because I think they've got the most underrated coach in the country in Bruce Pearl. I give Auburn the slight edge over Tennessee, Kentucky, and a sleeper, Mississippi State, right now.
Past And One! Predictions
11/6/23 – Maryland will win the Asheville Championship early season tournament (INCORRECT)
11/13/23 – 50 Point Scorer during the week (INCORRECT)
11/20/23 – I will eat entirely too much food on Thanksgiving (CORRECT)
11/27/23 – SEC will win the ACC/SEC Challenge (TIE)
12/11/23 – Connecticut to beat Gonzaga by 10+ points (CORRECT)
12/18/23 – Oklahoma to defeat North Carolina and FAU to defeat Arizona (INCORRECT)
12/26/23 – Mid-Major Conference Leader pulls upset over Power 5 Opponent (CORRECT)
1/1/24 – James Madison will be the final undefeated team in the country (INCORRECT)
1/8/24 – Washington Huskies to defeat the Michigan Wolverines for the National Championship (INCORRECT)
OVERALL RECORD: 3-5-1
