The news from the latest Bracketology NCAA Tournament projected bracket is heavy on the ACC on Monday. North Carolina replaced Kansas on the top line of the bracket as a No. 1 seed as a result of the Jayhawks’ 91-85 loss at West Virginia on Saturday.
Duke dropped from a No. 2 seed in Friday’s bracket to a No. 5 seed in the after the home loss to Pittsburgh. That sounds worse than it really is. The Blue Devils moved from No. 8 overall to No. 17, which is just nine spots, but it happens to also be three seed lines.
The Blue Devils have not been able to pick up the kinds of wins we are used to seeing from them this season. Worse than that, they are losing games they do not normally drop. That is the third out of their four losses to a team that is not in the current bracket or is unlikely to make the final one. Three of those losses are to Quad 2 teams, with the other being November’s home loss to Arizona. They also have four Quad 1 and 2 wins, but only the win over Baylor came against a likely NCAA Tournament team, although Michigan State is among the last four in the latest bracket.
In fact, it is going to be difficult to build a résumé in the ACC this season. Quality wins – the kind that gets the committee’s attention – will be hard to find. If a team doesn’t beat North Carolina, Duke or, for now, Clemson, it will be hard to make a splash. Those are the only three ACC teams in the latest bracket. It is possible to pick up Quad 1 wins against other teams, especially on the road, but not all Quad 1 wins are the same.
Perhaps the team outside those three with a chance to make a run at an at-large bid is Virginia Tech. The Hokies are the only other team to pick up multiple nonconference Quad 1 wins. However, they do not have a favorable schedule. They beat Clemson at home and will host Duke as well. They also travel to UNC, but all three teams are one-plays for Virginia Tech..
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s latest bracket and full field of 68 at the Bracketology hub.
DEaling with roster moves
Kentucky welcomed a new player to their rotation. Zvonimir Ivišić, a 7-foot-2 center from Croatia, who is known as “Big Z” (but not the biggest Z), had 13 points and five rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench in the Wildcats 105-96 win over Georgia
Terrance Shannon Jr. returned to Illinois following his suspension being lifted due to a court order issued last week. Shannon came off the bench in his return to the lineup and scored 14 points in the Fighting Illini’s 86-63 trouncing of Rutgers.
The selection committee deals with roster changes during the season, whether due to injury or situations like these, by putting a little more weight on how a team performed with the roster it is taking into the tournament than how it played when it was short-handed.
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