Bracketology: Auburn takes over as No. 1 overall seed; Gonzaga moves up to top line in new bracket projection
Mon, Jan 17, 2022
NCAAB News (AP)
In what is threatening to become a tradition, multiple No. 1s seeds from my Friday bracket lost on Saturday. This time, it was Baylor and LSU.
Despite being the first team ranked No. 1 in the polls to lose two home games in a week, the Bears, who were the No. 1 overall seed Friday before their home loss to Oklahoma State, are still a No. 1 seed for now because of the quality of their wins and their schedule. Obviously, they need to turn that around to stay on the top line. The Bears are the No. 2 overall seed and Auburn, winners of 13 straight games, is the new No. 1 national seed.
LSU, which was on the top line as the No. 3 overall seed, was not so fortunate. A home loss to Arkansas has dropped the Tigers to a No. 2 seed. They were replaced on the top line by Gonzaga, which posted a pair of 25+ point victories this week in conference play. One of those was over BYU, which is still in the bracket.
Duke, the new No. 3 overall seed, remains ahead of the Zags in part because of the head-to-head result from the Blue Devils' victory in late November. That will only hold up for so long though. Neither team has many opportunities in their conference to resume build. That is more typical of the West Coast Conference, but that league is deeper with quality teams that usual. There are three other WCC teams in the current field, but the highest seeded of those is San Francisco at nine.
The ACC also has a total of four teams in the bracket. The next highest seeded team after Duke is Miami at No. 10. Wake Forest and North Carolina just missed being slotted for the First Four and are No. 11 seeds.
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Check out Palm's latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on theBracketologyhub.
Good week for Oregon
No team had a better week than Oregon. The Ducks swept a road trip at UCLA and USC. That was enough to get them into the bracket as a No. 1 2 seed playing in the First Four. Those wins are more impressive by poll standards than bracket standards. Oregon is still only 10-6 on the season with a couple of 30-point losses and a Quad 4 loss at home to Arizona State.
Neither No. 5 seed UCLA nor No. 7 seed USC have bracket resumes that match their poll standing. The Trojans' resume could become problematic quickly if they slump. They have a very poor non-conference schedule ranking and have only one win over a team with a chance to make the tournament in San Diego State.
Second tier hurting SEC
The SEC has a big gap between the top five teams by bracket standards and the rest of the league. The biggest problem for most of the teams in the second group is non-conference strength of schedule. Texas A&M is among the first four out primarily because of a poor schedule, which currently ranks No. 287. The two best teams the Aggies have played, Wisconsin and TCU, beat them.
Indiana is also in the first four out for a similar reason, but the Hoosiers actually have two resume red flags. Their non-conference schedule ranks 340th out of 358. Teams typically have to do a lot to make up for that. But, that's not all. IU is also just 1-4 away from home. That was a win over Notre Dame in Indianapolis.
There is still plenty of time and opportunities ahead for Texas A&M and Indiana to make up for their current shortcomings.
Note: There is a bug on the bracket page regarding the supporting data listed below the bracket. For some teams, the data displayed is incorrect. Those teams are the ones that do not have a ranking under "NC SOS". The data for the other teams is accurate. Sorry for the problem and we are working to get it fixed.
