We are now less than a month from the first games of the NCAA tournament. It’s coming quick. It’s also been three weeks since my latest look at the various Bracketologists predicting the eight teams that will be heading to Sacramento for the first and second rounds.
This is because everything has changed and also, nothing has changed. As I knew back in November and have said in the first and second parts of this, UCLA is going to be playing in Sacramento, and they are going to a high seed. The other teams in the UCLA part of the bracket only sort of matter. We know there will be a couple of teams from Power 5 conferences there, but they won’t be the great ones. The ACC is having another down year (how many years before they’re just considered not very good?) and the lower teams in the Big 10 and SEC aren’t worth worrying about.
The question is, at it has been from the start, is who will be the top team in the other four-team bracket? I have said Gonzaga from the get-go, even though many bracketologists insist on putting Arizona in Sacramento instead and having the Zags go to Denver or even further east. As I have said from the jump, Denver is closer to Tucson and therefore makes much more sense for the Wildcats, and Sacramento is a logical landing spot for Gonzaga.
I’m going to keep telling you that’s how it’ll go down, and we’ll just see how it all shakes out in the end.
(The Actual Committee will release their Top 16 teams on Saturday, which will shake all of this up, and maybe wake some people up to the Gonzaga-in-Sacramento fact.)
Anyway. Brackets as of February 17th.
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Samford and (7) Maryland vs. (10) Nevada
East: (2) Arizona vs. (15) UNC-Asheville and (7) Michigan State vs. (10) Florida-Atlantic
This is actually a pretty good one for Joey Brackets, aside from the Arizona part. Since Nevada is in Reno, and Reno is not far from Sacramento, that’s a nice placement to get Wolfpack fans to buy tickets. He has Gonzaga as a 3-seed in Des Moines (???). His Denver top seeds are Texas and Baylor, both as twos, which means I’m going to point out the big problem here: Why have both of them in Denver and Gonzaga in Des Moines when that’s clearly Big 12 country? Put Gonzaga in Sacramento, Arizona in Denver, and one of the two Texas schools in Des Moines. How is that not happening here?
Midwest: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Youngstown State and (7) Nevada vs. (10) Rutgers
Midwest: (3) Gonzaga vs. (14) UC-Irvine and (6)TCU vs. (11) Play-in-Winner (Arkansas/Wisconsin)
I have complained a lot about how bad Jerry Palm’s seeding has been. He had UCLA as a 4 for weeks when nobody else had them lower than a 3. Now not only has he gotten that part fixed, he has done EXACTLY what I complained about Lunardi not doing. Gonzaga in Sacramento, Arizona in Denver (as a 2) and Baylor bounced to Des Moines, with Texas staying in Denver. Not only that, but yet another California school in Sactown with Irvine, and Nevada too. Doesn’t get much better than this.
East: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Vermont and (7) Rutgers vs. (10) Arkansas
West: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Eastern Washington and (7) Auburn vs. (10) West Virginia
Well, that hope of everyone else seeing the light was short-lived. It is also goofy that the 7-10 matchup on the UCLA side so far has Nevada, Rutgers, or both. Like Lunardi, he also has Gonzaga as a 3-seed in Des Moines and Baylor/Texas as twos in Denver. People, I’ve explained how dumb this is already. I’m not going to do it again.
Bracketville (Bracketguy Dave)
West: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Youngstown State and (7) Maryland vs. (10) Nevada
Midwest: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Kennesaw State and (7) Michigan State vs. (10) Boise State
Whoa, the UCLA side is trippy. It’s a combo of Palm and Lunardi. Arizona here, but in an odd twist he has Gonzaga as a 3-seed in Denver with Texas, and Baylor shipped to Des Moines.
Ahhhh, sooooo close.
Delphibracketology (group effort)
South: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Youngstown State and (7) Northwestern vs. (10) Nevada
East: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Samford and (7) Illinois vs. (10) West Virginia
A reminder this is a high school club in small-town Indiana and deserves all the accolades. They are pretty good at this! I quibble with not having either UCLA or Arizona in the West bracket, as one of them is assured to be placed there (with the regional in Las Vegas). And having Gonzaga in Des Moines with, again, Baylor and Texas in Denver. But that’s now 4 of the 5 brackets I’ve checked so far having Nevada, so that seems like a thing.
East: (2) UCLA vs. (15) Youngstown State and (7) Rutgers vs. (10) West Virginia
Midwest: (2) Arizona vs. (15) Eastern Washington and (7) Providence vs. (10) Oklahoma State
Well, all six have either Rutgers or Nevada or both, so that’s definitely a thing. And once again, we have Arizona in Sacramento, Gonzaga in Denver with Texas and Baylor in Des Moines. It’s a mid-pack bracket, for sure.
Well, to sum up, looks like Nevada is also a pretty good bet to make Sacramento, and Rutgers is certainly in the running.
The only thing I can guess is maybe Arizona prefers to be in Sacramento and Gonzaga to be in Denver? I mean, I can imagine the committee asking schools if they would rather be in this city or that city, and maybe Arizona would prefer to be in Sacramento. And you would think Gonzaga doesn’t mind being in Denver, because it’s really about equidistant from Spokane as far as travel time.
I still think Gonzaga winds up in Sacramento. For once, Jerry Palm has the best bracket.
And that’s concerning.