WKU Basketball: Bracketology Round-Up- January 13
The 2017–18 WKU basketball team has already produced several memorable moments and quality wins on the season. With the college basketball…
The 2017–18 WKU basketball team has already produced several memorable moments and quality wins on the season. With the college basketball season already past its midway point, it’s not too early to see where the Tops fit into the NCAA tournament projections.
With quality wins over Purdue, SMU, Wright State & Old Dominion, WKU is having their best regular season since 2008–09 and are already warranting at-large consideration despite a few losses that they wished they could have back (Ohio, Missouri State, Belmont & Wisconsin). Here are your updated Bracketology projections for WKU across the internet on January 13.
ESPN — 12 Seed, East Region
Joe Lunardi has had WKU as Conference USA’s lone bid for the past two weeks. He has MTSU in his first four out, making January 20’s matchup even bigger. This draw would be very favorable with two non traditional power schools (Auburn and Texas Tech) and a Villanova team that WKU played neck in neck with standing in WKU’s quest for a deep tournament run.
CBS Sports — 11 Seed, West Region
Jerry Palm is the the first national writer that i’ve seen to have WKU in as a potential at-large team. He has WKU as the fourth-to-last team into the field and has Middle Tennessee as the Conference USA tournament champion. If this scenario played out WKU, would have an extra play-in game towards their championship march beginning in Dayton against UCF. Should they win, they’d face a TCU squad trying to make their first tournament appearance since 1998. Duke, Wichita State & Texas all make this draw less favorable then some 12 seed scenario’s.
NBC Sports — Out
Despite having WKU in on his January 8 update, writer Dave Ommen has Middle Tennessee taking Conference USA’s lone bid as a 12th seed in the South Region. Dave doesn’t have WKU in his first eight out, but does have Purdue as a #1 seed, so maybe a little re-examination is in order after next week’s crucial two games.
SB Nation — Out
Chris Dobbertean releases his bracket on Tuesdays. This week, he had Old Dominion claiming C-USA’s lone berth. Obviously that will change with their loss to WKU last night. He has put WKU in the at-large consideration pool and projects them as having the sixth-best mid-major profile in his latest piece.
Inside The Hall — Out
This Indiana blog does a great job of tracking all of college basketball. Their latest release was on January 9, where they had Middle Tennessee taking C-USA’s lone bid as a 12 seed and didn’t have WKU among their first four out. Purdue is a #2 seed in their bracket.
Bracketville — 12 Seed, Midwest Region
Another blog that devotes itself to tracking the bracket. They’ve got WKU as C-USA’s lone bid and don’t include Middle Tennesse in their first eight out. This draw would be very interesting: On paper Arizona & North Carolina would be great challenges from a talent standpoint but this team has proven it can play with anyone.
Heat Check- 1st Four Out
Eli Boettger is a writer for USA Today and MWC Write who keeps up with the bracket on his own site. Last night he posted this on twitter
While he still has MTSU taking C-USA’s automatic bid, he does like’s WKU’s resume should they go on a 14–2 or better run in C-USA.
From what you can see, there seems to be very differing opinions on the Hilltoppers. I think they’re probably not in as an at-large team at this point, but their win over Purdue would probably put them in a favorable 12 vs. 5 matchup should they win the conference tournament.
Next week’s matchups against UAB and Middle Tennessee will be very important towards solidifying their resume and Middle will give WKU two more chances for marquee resume building wins.
We’ll continue to update you weekly on the Tops bracket projections and expand our list as more sites come on board in the coming weeks.
What do you think about WKU’s NCAA tournament projections? Let us know on our brand new forum.