March 13, 2016
Coming to you live from Barclays Center just prior to St. Joe’s and VCU tipping off for the Atlantic 10 title, let’s quickly update the brackets. ‘Nova lost an instant classic at The Garden. St. Joe’s toppled Dayton to add to their résumé. And Temple couldn’t beat UConn a third time down in Orlando.
We don’t have any time to waste. Let’s get right to where each local team stands in the minds of the bracketologists coming into today:
• Joe Lunardi, ESPN
• Jerry Palm, CBS Sports
• Stewart Mandel, Fox Sports
• Shelby Mast, USA Today
KenPom: 5
RPI: 4
Consensus: 2 seed, East Regional
Villanova’s locker room was unsurprisingly a very quiet place after last night’s loss, but the Wildcats don’t have anything to be ashamed of. That said, they will likely get knocked off the top line.
If ‘Nova still gets to play in Brooklyn and Philly — Only Mast has the Wildcats playing as the 2 seed in another region — Jay Wright would be thrilled. It doesn’t seem fair that a one seed could potentially play a true road game in the Elite 8, but the bracketologists know much more about this stuff than I do.
(For the sake of our coverage, I hope they’re right.)
KenPom: 45
RPI: 23
Consensus: 8 seed
It has been a productive couple of days in Brooklyn for the Hawks, who are now safely in the tourney. Mandel is the only bracketologist that has Phil Martelli’s team off the 8 line (at a 10), and you would have to imagine that a win today might allow the Hawks to get seeded even higher.
KenPom: 89
RPI: 63
Consensus: Last four in, play-in game
The Owls are truly on the bubble, and they will be rooting for the team that knocked them off yesterday (UConn) to take care of potential bid stealer Memphis in the AAC final. Of the four bracketologists, Mandel is the only one who currently projects the Owls to be out of the field.
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