I’m doing another Bracketology a week after the season started because I’m dumb. I had two teams getting the auto-bid from the wrong conference. So I got it all sorted out now. I feel like we’ve seen enough action to calculate data and start to use it to seed teams. Right now it’s Gonzaga, Baylor and everyone else. Kansas lost. Duke lost. Villanova lost. Virginia lost. West Virginia lost. Illinois lost. And Kentucky looks extremely slow out the gate.
Michigan State battled back to beat Duke, but I’m still not ready to put them on the one line. Two seed still feels a little too high for the Spartans. Texas won the Maui, but I’m still pumping the breaks a bit about shooting them up too fast. Shaka Smart will probably never shave his head again. Iowa and Wisconsin haven’t had much competition yet. My preseason feel swaps the Hawkeyes and Virginia on the seed line. I’m not ready to put the Badgers there yet. Houston and Louisville are the other two big movers and the eye test is the reason for that.
Tennessee, Oklahoma and DePaul haven’t played a single game while writing this. Florida State, Syracuse, Arizona, Miami, Oregon and Florida all have only played one game. It’s going to come down to the eye test this season. And for these early season rankings, you have to take in consideration how you felt about them in the preseason. That’s the best explanation I can provide about why teams moved up or down even though they haven’t even played multiple games.
Games will be canceled and postponed on a couple hours notice. Games will be moved to a neutral site without much warning. We just have to adjust. And do what Mike Brey did, send a tweet saying Notre Dame has an open date if anyone wanted to schedule a game. As long as we don’t get a notification saying college basketball has been put on pause, it’s going to be fun.
As always, check us out on the Bracket Matrix.
One more thing, they’re not doing regions this season so I’m doing four pods until we hear more information about the exact format. More changes. More stress. 2020 has been so much fun.
Pod 1
1 Gonzaga
16 St. Francis PA/Prairie View A&M
8 Syracuse
9 Alabama
5 Texas Tech
12 SMU/UConn
4 Louisville
13 Drake
6 Indiana
11 Arizona
3 West Virginia
14 Little Rock
7 Oregon
10 Virginia Tech
2 Wisconsin
15 Youngstown
Pod 4
1 Iowa
16 Elon
8 Stanford
9 Memphis
5 Florida State
12 Vermont
4 Tennessee
13 Murray State
6 Richmond
11 Western Kentucky
3 Duke
14 UC Santa Barbara
7 San Diego State
10 Clemson
2 Kansas
16 Eastern Washington
Pod 2
1 Baylor
16 Norfolk State/Iona
8 LSU
9 UCLA
5 North Carolina
12 South Dakota State
4 Creighton
13 Ohio
6 Kentucky
11 Colorado
3 Illinois
14 New Mexico State
7 USC
10 Michigan
2 Virginia
15 Colgate
Pod 3
1 Villanova
16 Winthrop
8 Rutgers
9 Arizona State
5 Florida
12 Miami/Xavier
4 Houston
13 UNCG
6 Ohio State
11 DePaul
3 Texas
14 Abilene Christian
7 Saint Louis
10 Oklahoma
2 Michigan State
15 Lipscomb
Last four byes
Oklahoma
Arizona
Colorado
DePaul
Last four in
SMU
UConn
Miami
Xavier
First four out
Seton Hall
Marquette
Maryland
VCU
Next four out
Arkansas
Penn State
Missouri
TCU
Four more
NC State
Purdue
Saint Mary’s
Cincinnati
Keep the conversation going by reaching out to Austin Walther on Twitter.