WKU Basketball: Bracketology Round-Up — January 19
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 and the conference season now one-third of the way complete, 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 and UAB, 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 and Wisconsin). Here are your updated Bracketology projections for WKU across the internet to close out your week.
ESPN — 12 Seed, Midwest Region
Joe Lunardi has been a believer in the Hilltoppers for weeks now and he continues to put WKU in very favorable draws. His Thursday update is no exception with, WKU being placed once again with two non-traditional power teams and a Purdue team that they’ve already beaten. If this draw became a reality a long tournament run wouldn’t be out of the picture.
CBS Sports — 11 Seed, Midwest Region
Jerry Palm has also been an early believer in WKU’s resume. He was the first bracketologist to have WKU as an at-large team last week and this week he’s moved WKU out of his last four in. The 11 seed represents one of the best predictions thus far and also would have the Tops playing the in-state Wildcats in a matchup that would draw alot of buzz especially since they’ve only played 6 times ever (UK holds a 4–2 margin).
NBC Sports — Next Four Out
Dave Ommen’s bracket was posted way back on Monday so it hasn’t taken this week’s results into consideration. He has Middle Tennessee as C-USA’s lone tournament participant, which will obviously change if WKU can defeat them on Saturday. He had WKU as the fifth team out but several teams ahead of them (UCLA, Washington, LSU and Notre Dame) lost, so there’s room for movement.
SB Nation — First Eight Out
Chris Dobbertean once replaced Old Dominion with Middle in his bracket despite WKU winning in Norfolk. This was updated on Tuesday and he now has WKU as the seventh team out. Just like other brackets, this tells me that WKU’s resume is creeping up and if they can continue to win against the teams they should beat they’ll have a compelling argument for an at-large spot.
Sports Illustrated — 12 Seed, West Region
This bracket was released way back on Monday as well. Michael Beller has WKU in yet another favorable draw with non-traditional powers blanketing the corner of the bracket. If the Toppers did face the likes of Auburn, Seton Hall or Oklahoma, there would be ample anticipation for a long potential run.
Washington Post — Out
Patrick Stevens bracket was released back on Tuesday. He had Middle Tennesse taking C-USA’s lone bid, placing them as a 10 seed in the midwest bracket. He doesn’t seem to have noticed WKU yet though because he doesn’t even have them in his first eight teams out. That should hopefully change during his next bracket update.
Inside The Hall — Out
This IU blog has Middle taking C-USA’s bid as a 12 seed in the South region. Andy Bottoms didn’t have WKU in his first four out. Obviosly there are a lot of results since then that will change his bracket next week.
Sporting News — 12 Seed
Ryan Fagen updated his bracket today. He has WKU as a solid 12 seed. He doesn’t update the regions, but has Middle listed as a bubble team. The potential five seeds he has the Tops playing include Seton Hall, Arizona, Arizona State and Ohio State.
Bracketville — 11 Seed, West Region
Another great blog that devotes itself exclusively to Bracketology. He projects WKU to have their best seed, 11, and says their resume would be the 47th strongest. An experienced Creighton and talented Arizona team would be tough but this draw wouldn’t be completely unmanageable.
Haslemetrics — 10 Seed
Erik Haslem has his own advanced metrics that he uses to measure analysis the best teams in college basketball (similar to Kenpom or Sagarin). Unlike those two, he does project their bracket based on teams that “deserve” to be in. With WKU’s strengthening resume he as the Tops deserving of a 10 seed which would probably put them in a first round match-up with Jaime Dixon’s TCU Horned Frogs.
As you can probably tell, several of these don’t take into consideration Thursday’s results (specifically MTSU’s loss). WKU continues to trend not only towards being the favorite for Conference USA’s auto bid but also might be able to have strong at-large consideration should they slip in the C-USA tournament.
Should they finish the season strong, anywhere between an 8 to 10 seed isn’t out of the picture. The non-conference wins over Purdue (potential #1 seed) and SMU (who just won at Wichita) are not only superior to 99% of most other mid-majors, but will stack up favorably to several other high major bubble teams as well.
If WKU beats Middle Tennessee on Saturday, I think you’ll see the Tops unanimously in on next week’s update. If that happens, we can all gladly start worrying about seeding here in the coming weeks.
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.