FINAL BRACKET PROJECTION (sort of)

Sort of because you won't see 32 green teams here. The American Tournament finals are still going on but I don't see it effecting seeding at all. That being said, here we go!

	ATLANTA	BOSTON	OMAHA	LOS ANGELES
1	Virginia	Villanova	Xavier	Kansas
2	Purdue	Cincinnati	North Carolina	Duke
3	Tennessee	Michigan St.	Michigan	Auburn
4	West Virginia	Texas Tech	Arizona	Wichita St.
5	Clemson	Kentucky	Gonzaga	Ohio St.
6	Miami FL	Florida	Arkansas	Houston
7	Nevada	TCU	Texas A&M	Seton Hall
8	Creighton	Virginia Tech	Missouri	Rhode Island
9	Alabama	Kansas St.	Butler	Providence
10	North Carolina St.	Florida St.	St. Bonaventure	USC
11	Loyola Chicago	Saint Mary's	UCLA	New Mexico St.
11		Texas	Oklahoma
12	Murray St.	San Diego St.	South Dakota St.	Buffalo
13	Davidson	UNC Greensboro	College of Charleston	Marshall
14	Stephen F. Austin	Wright St.	Montana	Bucknell
15	Lipscomb	Penn	Georgia St.	UMBC
16	Radford	Iona	LIU Brooklyn	Cal St. Fullerton
16			North Carolina Central	Texas Southern

Bracket Projection: 3/10

The Penultimate Bracket is here! I'm putting yesterday's date so that it doesn't get confused with the final bracket that will be posted later today once the final five auto-bids are determined. Here's how things stand:

	ATLANTA	BOSTON	OMAHA	LOS ANGELES
1	Virginia	Villanova	Xavier	Kansas
2	Purdue	Cincinnati	North Carolina	Duke
3	Tennessee	Michigan St.	Michigan	Auburn
4	West Virginia	Texas Tech	Arizona	Wichita St.
5	Clemson	Kentucky	Gonzaga	Ohio St.
6	Miami FL	Florida	Arkansas	Houston
7	Nevada	TCU	Texas A&M	Seton Hall
8	Creighton	Virginia Tech	Missouri	Rhode Island
9	Alabama	Kansas St.	Butler	Providence
10	North Carolina St.	Florida St.	St. Bonaventure	USC
11	Loyola Chicago	Louisville	Saint Mary's	UCLA
11			Texas	Oklahoma
12	San Diego St.	New Mexico St.	South Dakota St.	Buffalo
13	Murray St.	UNC Greensboro	College of Charleston	Marshall
14	Stephen F. Austin	Wright St.	Montana	Bucknell
15	Lipscomb	Penn	Georgia St.	UMBC
16	Radford	Iona	LIU Brooklyn	Cal St. Fullerton
16			North Carolina Central	Texas Southern

The SEC, American, Atlantic 10, Sun Belt, and Ivy League will determine their conference tournament champions today, and then it'll be time to wait and see what the actual committee goes with. Enjoy your Selection Sunday!

Bracket Projection: 3/8

Only one auto-bid yesterday (Bucknell) and none today, but quite a bit of movement around the bubble. This projection does not include games that occurred earlier today. Those will go into tomorrow's bracket. Things are moving fast:

	ATLANTA	BOSTON	LOS ANGELES	OMAHA
1	Virginia	Villanova	Kansas	Xavier
2	Purdue	Cincinnati	North Carolina	Duke
3	Auburn	Michigan St.	Michigan	Tennessee
4	West Virginia	Arizona	Texas Tech	Wichita St.
5	Clemson	Kentucky	Gonzaga	Ohio St.
6	Miami FL	Florida	Houston	TCU
7	Nevada	Texas A&M	Seton Hall	Arkansas
8	Missouri	Virginia Tech	Creighton	Rhode Island
9	Butler	St. Bonaventure	Florida St.	Oklahoma
10	North Carolina St.	Kansas St.	Texas	Saint Mary's
11	USC	Baylor	Alabama	UCLA
11		Providence	Arizona St.
12	Buffalo	New Mexico St.	Middle Tennessee	Loyola Chicago
13	Murray St.	Vermont	South Dakota St.	Louisiana Lafayette
14	Montana	Bucknell	College of Charleston	UNC Greensboro
15	Wright St.	UC Santa Barbara	Iona	Penn
16	Radford	Texas Southern	Stephen F. Austin	Lipscomb
16	Hampton	LIU Brooklyn

Bracket Projection: 3/7

Five more teams punched their tickets yesterday, and the number of auto-bids is up to 12. One more will be added to their ranks today, as Bucknell takes on Colgate (who presumably beat Oral-B in the semifinals) for the Toothpaste Patriot League championship. Everything else remains essentially unchanged:

	ATLANTA	BOSTON	LOS ANGELES	OMAHA
1	Virginia	Villanova	Kansas	Xavier
2	Purdue	North Carolina	Cincinnati	Duke
3	Auburn	Michigan St.	Michigan	Tennessee
4	West Virginia	Arizona	Texas Tech	Wichita St.
5	Clemson	Kentucky	Gonzaga	Ohio St.
6	Miami FL	Florida	Houston	TCU
7	Nevada	Texas A&M	Seton Hall	Arkansas
8	Oklahoma	Missouri	Creighton	Rhode Island
9	Butler	Florida St.	Virginia Tech	North Carolina St.
10	Kansas St.	Arizona St.	Saint Mary's	St. Bonaventure
11	Texas	UCLA	Providence	USC
11		Baylor	Alabama
12	Buffalo	New Mexico St.	Middle Tennessee	Loyola Chicago
13	Murray St.	Vermont	South Dakota St.	Louisiana Lafayette
14	Montana	Bucknell	College of Charleston	UNC Greensboro
15	Wright St.	UC Santa Barbara	Iona	Penn
16	Radford	Texas Southern	Stephen F. Austin	Lipscomb
16	Hampton	LIU Brooklyn

Several bubble teams are in action today and tomorrow as the bigger conferences begin their tournaments, so that will be something to keep a close eye on as Selection Sunday draws nearer.

Bracket Projection: 3/6

I did a full reevaluation after hastily posting yesterday's bracket. A few teams have moved, but not as much as I would've expected. Most notable are Florida and Miami continuing to climb. Also UNC Greensboro and Iona did punch their ticket, as expected, so we're up to 7 green highlights:

	ATLANTA	BOSTON	LOS ANGELES	OMAHA
1	Virginia	Villanova	Kansas	Xavier
2	Purdue	North Carolina	Cincinnati	Duke
3	Auburn	Michigan St.	Michigan	Tennessee
4	West Virginia	Arizona	Texas Tech	Wichita St.
5	Clemson	Kentucky	Ohio St.	Gonzaga
6	Miami FL	Florida	Houston	TCU
7	Nevada	Texas A&M	Seton Hall	Arkansas
8	Oklahoma	Missouri	Creighton	Rhode Island
9	Butler	Florida St.	Virginia Tech	North Carolina St.
10	Kansas St.	Arizona St.	St. Bonaventure	Saint Mary's
11	Texas	UCLA	Providence	USC
11		Baylor	Alabama
12	Buffalo	New Mexico St.	Middle Tennessee	Loyola Chicago
13	Murray St.	Vermont	Louisiana Lafayette	South Dakota
14	Montana	Bucknell	College of Charleston	UNC Greensboro
15	Wright St.	UC Santa Barbara	Wagner	Penn
16	Radford	Iona	Stephen F. Austin	Lipscomb
16	Hampton		Texas Southern

Saint Mary's also got upset by BYU which could put them in jeopardy, but I haven't looked closely at that yet. That'll be evaluated in tomorrow's update. Additionally, a whopping five conference tournament championships are tonight, so we'll see if Gonzaga, South Dakota, College of Charleston, Wright State, and Wagner (which in my head I always pronounce with the German pronunciation) can also seal the deal.

Bracket Projection: 3/5

Happy Monday! Bracket week has arrived, and this year it comes with the sweet satisfaction of Michigan having already sealed an automatic bid and a huge resume boost from beating Michigan State and Purdue. As mentioned a few weeks ago, the extreme best-case scenario of Michigan winning their last two games and then four straight in the conference tournament has rocketed them up to a 3 seed, which is fun. What's less fun is the 1 and the 2 in this exact scenario, but of course, the regions are just for fun. Here is the rest of the bracket as it stands today. Like last year, green highlight means the team has won their conference tournament and secured an auto-bid:

	ATLANTA	BOSTON	OMAHA	LOS ANGELES
1	Virginia	Villanova	Xavier	Kansas
2	Purdue	Cincinnati	North Carolina	Duke
3	Auburn	Tennessee	Michigan St.	Michigan
4	Arizona	Clemson	Texas Tech	Wichita St.
5	Kentucky	Ohio St.	Gonzaga	West Virginia
6	Houston	Nevada	Arkansas	TCU
7	Seton Hall	Rhode Island	Texas A&M	Creighton
8	Oklahoma	Florida	Miami FL	Butler
9	Saint Mary's	Virginia Tech	Missouri	Florida St.
10	North Carolina St.	Alabama	Arizona St.	USC
11	Middle Tennessee	St. Bonaventure	Providence	Louisville
11		Texas	Kansas St.
12	New Mexico St.	Baylor	Louisiana Lafayette	Loyola Chicago
13	Buffalo	Vermont	Murray St.	South Dakota
14	Montana	Bucknell	College of Charleston	UNC Greensboro
15	UC Santa Barbara	Wright St.	Wagner	Penn
16	Radford	Iona	Lipscomb	Stephen F. Austin
16	Hampton			Texas Southern

Iona and UNC Greensboro attempt to punch their tickets today, with Fairfield and East Tennessee State as their respective challengers. Enjoy the madness this week!