Thursday Update

Our schedule for the next 4 weeks will be a new bracket on Monday and Friday.  Between those dates you’ll get bracket updates and notes on a daily basis from me along with rankings and team breakdowns from Kurly.

I’d like to start today’s with Marquette’s last second loss last night to DePaul.  That falls in the category of a bad loss and really dents any at large chance the Warriors had in getting an at large.  They are going to have very little room for error in a tough conference.

As with previous weeks the top teams continue to fall.  This week so far it’s been Kansas, Oklahoma, and Xavier, which were 3 of my top 5.  In addition Michigan State and Duke have lost their last 3 and West Virginia took one on the chin against Texas.  This really shows that there aren’t any great teams out there.

On the flip side of the bracket 5 of first 7 out lost as well so nobody is really making a push to get into the bracket.  There may be an opportunity for one of those low to mid majors to get in there if these mid level big conference teams continue to look mediocre.

Lastly, just to touch on North Carolina as they seem poised to take the top spot in my bracket come tomorrow.  They’ve played most of the year without either Marcus Paige or Kennedy Meeks.  Now they are at full strength they can really flex their muscles.  I’m still concerned with their KenPom defensive numbers but I expect those to climb as they march through conference season.