Monday, January 31, 2005

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Jan. 31

Here are Chris and Craig's Bracketology 101 selections for Jan. 31:

The Breakdown
LSU gets in this week because they are 4-2 in the SEC and they have two winnable road games this week. UAB gets the nod over Marquette because they are two games better then them in conference and we predict that UAB will win at Marquette on Wednesday night. Texas A & M gets the axe because of there upcoming tough schedule which we predict they will not fair well with.

Seeding of teams will start next week.

Conference Breakdown: Big East (7), ACC (6), PAC-10 (5), Big XII (5), Big Ten (5), C-USA (5), SEC (5), MVC (2), WAC (2), WCC (2).

Last Four In
LSU, UAB, Minnesota, Miami-Fla.

Last Four Out
Marquette, Western Michigan, Texas A&M, Oregon

The Field Of 65

America East
Vermont

A-10
George Washington

ACC
North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami-Fla.

Atlantic Sun
Gardner-Webb

Big 12
Kansas, Oklahoma St., Texas, Oklahoma, Texas Tech

Big East
Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Villanova, Georgetown

Big Sky
Portland State

Big South
Winthrop

Big Ten
Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota

Big West
Pacific

Colonial
Old Dominion

C-USA
Cincinnati, Louisville, Charlotte, DePaul, UAB

Horizon
Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Ivy
Princeton

MAAC
Rider

MCC
UMKC

MAC
Miami-Ohio

MEAC
Coppin St.

MVC
Southern Ill., Wichita State

MWC
Utah

Northeast
Monmouth

Ohio Valley
Tennessee Tech

PAC-10
Washington, Arizona, Stanford, UCLA, Arizona State

Patriot
Bucknell

SEC
Kentucky, Miss. St., Alabama, Florida, LSU

Southern
Davidson

Southland
SE Louisiana

SWAC
Miss. Valley St.

Sun Belt
UL-Lafayette

WCC
Gonzaga, St. Mary's

WAC
UTEP, Nevada

*Note - In the conferences where mulitple bids were given the first place team was given the automatic bid. In the case of a tie, overall record was the tie-breaker.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Jan. 24

Here are Chris and Craig's Bracketology selections for Jan. 24:

Week In Review
The PAC-10 was tough this week. Stanford has been on a roll, while Oregon, UCLA, and ASU have all been stumbling. ASU gets in ahead of the other 3 because of their wins over Vandy, Temple, and Santa Clara out of conference and they have won at both Oregon and Stanford in conference. Oregon has the strongest RPI and no bad losses and although Stanford had some bad out of conference losses early in the season they have won four in a row including a win against Arizona and at UCLA. UCLA has the worst RPI out of the 4 and has lost its last 3 games which overshadows their previous wins over Oregon, Washington, and ASU.

Some may still think that UCLA deserves a bid over GW or Temple. Temple gets the automatic bid out of the A-10 since they will probably only lose 2 or 3 games in conference since they have already won at Xavier and UMass and have an easy schedule from here on out. GW still deserves an at-large bid because of their out of conference wins against Michigan State and Maryland. Minnesota and UAB have yet to beat anyone so they don't deserve a bid and Indiana still has some work to do to make up for their poor start.

We welcome your comments and questions.

Conference Breakdown: Big East (7), ACC (6), Big XII (6), PAC-10 (5), C-USA (5), Big Ten (4), SEC (4), A-10 (2), MVC (2), WAC (2), WCC (2).

Last Four In
George Washington, Oregon, Texas A&M, Stanford

Last Four Out
UCLA, Minnesota, UAB, Indiana

The Field Of 65

America East
Vermont

A-10
Temple, George Washington

ACC
North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Miami, Maryland

Atlantic Sun
Mercer

Big 12
Oklahoma St., Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech

Big East
Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, UConn, Notre Dame, Villanova, Georgetown

Big Sky
Portland State

Big South
Winthrop

Big Ten
Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa

Big West
Pacific

Colonial
Old Dominion

C-USA
Cincinnati, Marquette, Louisville, Charlotte, DePaul

Horizon
Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Ivy
Princeton

MAAC
Fairfield

MCC
UMKC

MAC
Western Michigan

MEAC
Norfolk State

MVC
Southern Ill., Wichita State

MWC
Utah

Northeast
Monmouth

Ohio Valley
Samford

PAC-10
Washington, Arizona, Oregon, Arizona State, Stanford

Patriot
Bucknell

SEC
Kentucky, Miss. St., Alabama, Florida

Southern
Davidson

Southland
SE Louisiana

SWAC
Southern

Sun Belt
Ark.-Little Rock

WCC
Gonzaga, St. Mary's

WAC
UTEP, Nevada

*Note - In the conferences where mulitple bids were given the first place team was given the automatic bid. In the case of a tie, overall record was the tie-breaker.

Monday, January 17, 2005

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Jan 17.

Here are Chris and Craig's Bracketology selections for the week of Jan. 17:

A reminder...we make more of a prediction then projection with this picks. You may be asking what is the difference. The other bracketologists out there make projections and tell you who they think would make the tournament if they picked the field today. We do a little bit of that in our picks but we also try to look ahead to March and predict what will happen. That is why we don't have 7 teams in from any major conferences and why we have given many small conferences two spots. That is how things will shake out come conference tourney time when there are upsets in conference tourney's and small conference powers who should be getting the automatic bids start stealing at-large spots. So its not realistic to give 7 conferences all 34 of the at-large bids because it simply will not happen. This is typically what many other bracketologists do and is a major reason why this site was started. Our picks are more realistic and give you better insight into what your team needs to do to make the tourney.

We welcome your comments and responses to our picks and we stand behind them (except for the small conferences-- we put little to no thought into the MEAC's and SWAC's of the college basketball world, but we will once their conference schedule progresses). Keep in mind that these picks were posted Jan. 17 and this week's will surely change them.

Conference Breakdown: ACC (6), Big East (6), Big XII (6), Big Ten (6), SEC (5), PAC-10 (5), C-USA (5), WAC (2), WCC (2)

Last Four In
Vanderbilt, Arizona State, Minnesota, UTEP

Last Four Out
NC State, West Virginia, UAB, Wichita St.

*Note - In the conferences where mulitple bids were given the first place team was given the automatic bid. In the case of a tie, overall record was the tie-breaker.

America East
Vermont

A-10
George Washington

ACC
North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Miami, Maryland

Atlantic Sun
Mercer

Big 12
Oklahoma St., Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech

Big East
Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, UConn, Notre Dame, Georgetown

Big Sky
Portland State

Big South
Winthrop

Big Ten
Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota

Big West
Pacific

Colonial
Old Dominion

C-USA
Cincinnati, Marquette, Louisville, Charlotte, DePaul

Horizon
Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Ivy
Princeton

MAAC
Fairfield

MCC
UMKC

MAC
Western Michigan

MEAC
Norfolk State

MVC
Southern Ill.

MWC
Utah

Northeast
Monmouth

Ohio Valley
Samford

PAC-10
Washington, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon, Arizona State

Patriot
Bucknell

SEC
Kentucky, Miss. St., Alabama, Florida, Vanderbilt

Southern
Davidson

Southland
SE Louisiana

SWAC
Southern

Sun Belt
Ark.-Little Rock

WCC
Gonzaga, St. Mary's

WAC
UTEP, Nevada

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Bracketology 101's Field of 65 - Jan. 14

Here are Chris and Craig's long-awaited first Bracketology selections of the season...

Now, some of you fellow bracketlogist wannabe's may think some of our picks are absurd but first listen to our theory. We are not like all of the other so-called bracketologists (i.e. Joe Lunardi) making our picks. That is because we make more of a prediction then projection. You may be asking what is the difference. The other bracketologists out there make projections and tell you who they think would make the tournament if they picked the field today. We do a little bit of that in our picks but we also try to look ahead to March and predict what will happen. That is why we don't have 7 teams in from any major conferences and why we have given many small conferences two spots. That is how things will shake out come conference tourney time when there are upsets in conference tourney's and small conference powers who should be getting the automatic bids start stealing at-large spots. So its not realistic to give 7 conferences all 34 of the at-large bids because it simply will not happen. This is typically what many other bracketologists do and is a major reason why this site was started. Our picks are more realistic and give you better insight into what your team needs to do to make the tourney.

We welcome your comments and responses to our picks and we stand behind them (except for the small conferences-- we put little to no thought into the MEAC's and SWAC's of the college basketball world, but we will once their conference schedule progresses). Keep in mind that these picks were posted Jan. 14 and weekend games will surely change them.

Conference Breakdown: ACC (6), SEC (6), Big XII (5), Big East (5), Big Ten (5), PAC-10 (5), C-USA (4), MAC (2), MVC (2), MWC (2), WAC (2), WCC (2)

Last Four In
Nevada, Utah, Charlotte, Kent. St.

Last Four Out
Depaul, WVU, Villanova, Virginia

*Note - In the conferences where mulitple bids were given the first place team was given the automatic bid. In the case of a tie, overall record was the tie-breaker.

America East
Vermont

A-10
George Washington

ACC
North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Miami, Maryland

Atlantic Sun
Gardner Webb

Big 12
Oklahoma St., Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M

Big East
Syracuse, Pitt, UConn, Boston College, Notre Dame

Big Sky
Portland State

Big South
Winthrop

Big Ten
Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota

Big West
Pacific

Colonial
Old Dominion

C-USA
Cincinnati, Marquette, Louisville, Charlotte

Horizon
Wisconsin-Green Bay

Ivy
Princeton

MAAC
Niagara

MCC
Oral Roberts

MAC
Western Michigan, Kent St.

MEAC
Norfolk State

MVC
Wichita State, Southern Ill.

MWC
New Mexico, Utah

Northeast
St. Francis (PA)

Ohio Valley
Murray State

PAC-10
Washington, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon

Patriot
Bucknell

SEC
Kentucky, Miss. St., Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, Vanderbilt

Southern
UT-Chattanooga

Southland
SE Louisiana

SWAC
Southern

Sun Belt
Middle Tenn St.

WCC
Gonzaga, St. Mary's

WAC
UTEP, Nevada