Bracketology: Predicting the 2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket, Week 12

Welcome to the 12th week of Bracketology projections for the 2024 NCAA Tournament here at ClutchPoints! So, I'm just gonna level with ya… every Monday morning when I'm writing this column, I never know what to write in this section here at the top. Everything else within this weekly column is pretty formulaic. I show you the bracket, I break down the bracket, I make note of the teams who just made and missed the cut into the bracket, I pick the five games of the week that pique my interest the most, and then I make a prediction. But this section up here, I often just ramble.

Today, I want to take a second to note one specific conference and how much I've enjoyed watching things unfold within it this year. As you'll soon see, the Mountain West Conference currently has five teams in the NCAA Tournament field according to my projections, with a sixth team as my first team out of the field. And while the Mountain West may lack traditional star power, this is the most interesting that the conference has been, for my money, since the 2010-11 season, when Jimmer Fredette and Kawhi Leonard were leading not only the two top teams in the conference, but two of the top teams in the entire country. In addition to BYU — still in the Mountain West at that time — and San Diego State, you had a really solid UNLV team, and a young New Mexico squad that would go on to win 28, 29, and 27 games the next three seasons.

This year the conference may not be as top heavy as it was in the 2010-11 season — though, San Diego State did make it to the National Championship Game last year and they returned a good number of contributors from that team — but it's a conference that may has five, maybe six contenders to win the conference tournament come March 16th. Count this as an unofficial And One! prediction, but I'm taking the surging New Mexico Lobos to take home the Mountain West crown and earn an automatic bid into the 2024 NCAA Tournament Field.

Bracketology Bracket

Bracketology Breakdown 

Top Seeds: Purdue Boilermakers (Midwest Region), Connecticut Huskies (East Region), Houston Cougars (South Region), Arizona Wildcats (West Region)

Multi-Bid Leagues: AAC (2), ACC (4), Big 12 (9), Big East (6), Big Ten (6), Mountain West (5), Pac-12 (3), SEC (8), WCC (2)

Bracketology Bubble Watch 

Last Four Byes: Nebraska, South Carolina, Gonzaga, Boise State

Last Four In: Northwestern, Kansas State, Colorado, Wake Forest

First Four Out: Nevada, Oregon, Providence, Texas

Next Four Out: Indiana State, Miami FL, Ohio State, Cincinnati

Five Most Intriguing Games of the Week 

Wake Forest at North Carolina – Mon. Jan. 22nd, 7:00 PM ET, ESPN

Houston at BYU – Tue. Jan. 23rd, 9:00 PM ET, ESPN+

Auburn at Alabama – Wed. Jan. 24th, 7:30 PM ET, ESPN

Michigan State at Wisconsin – Fri. Jan. 26th, 8:00 PM ET, FS1

Kansas at Iowa State – Sat. Jan. 27th, 1:30 PM ET, CBS

And One! 

Last week with my And One!, I made a series of predictions that I won't know the answer to until mid-March. A little anticlimactic, I know, but with the regular season at the halfway point, I wanted to get some predictions on record. Here's a prediction that I'll be able to cash in by next Monday… I don't like what's going on with Penny Hardaway's Memphis Tigers squad. I wrote about it last week, and after suffering another heartbreaking loss on Sunday — this one to Tulane — I just don't know when the bleeding is going to stop. Memphis has only one game this week, at UAB, and I don't think Memphis is ready to get their season back on track. Give me UAB over Memphis next Sunday.