WKU Basketball: Bracketology Round-Up — January 27
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). The loss to Middle Tennessee was a big missed opportunity and these projections reflect that. Here are your updated Bracketology projections for WKU across the internet to close out your week.
ESPN — First Four Out
Joe Lunardi is one of many bacteriologists that moved WKU from safely in the field to the bubble after Saturday’s home loss to Middle Tennessee. He still thinks highly of the Tops, putting them in the first four out. He has Purdue as a #1 seed, hopefully the Tops signature win will continue to boost the Tops resume with other marquee wins (SMU) looking less valuable as the season continues.
CBS Sports — Out
Jerry Palm had been an early believer in WKU’s resume. But the loss to Middle Tennessee moved WKU from in the field to the bubble and he now doesn’t list WKU among the first four out. This will unfortunately become a trend over the month of February. WKU won’t be able to bolster its resume again until the last two weeks of the season (ODU, MTSU and UAB close out the year for the Tops). In the meantime we can only hope WKU doesn’t take a loss (any one is bad until ODU) and that other bubble teams keep losing.
NBC Sports — Next Four Out
Dave Ommen’s bracket was updated on Friday to include all of this week’s results. He has been on the Middle Tennessee train for most of the season and last Saturday’s result cemented their top spot. His bubble shows alot of power conference teams that WKU will have to overcome to take an at-large spot.
SB Nation — First Eight Out
Chris Dobbertean has WKU as the fifth team out of the tournament during his look at the tournament bubble. WKU’s place on the bubble will be dictated more on how other team’s play then what they do over the next few weeks (barring a bad loss by the Tops). Teams in power conferences have a great chance to stack up resume building wins (see Kansas State, South Carolina this past week) but also can play themselves out with a little more margin for error. Dobbertean tracks Tier 1 & 2 victories in this chart, showing that WKU’s 6 victories (Purdue, SMU, UAB, ODU, Wright State and Marshall) separates them from several mid-major brethren but are similar to a lot of other bubble teams.
Sports Illustrated — First Four Out
Michael Beller moved WKU from a 12 seed to outside the cut line after the MTSU loss. He does have Purdue as a one seed and SMU as one of the last teams in (before their bad loss at UConn). Just like several other projections, WKU will have to hope that other teams lose while they can rack up wins before their resume building 3 game finish to conference play.
Washington Post — Out
Patrick Stevens bracket was released back on Tuesday. He had Middle Tennesse taking C-USA’s lone bid before last week and Saturday’s result didn’t change anything with him. He doesn’t have WKU in his first eight teams out. If his bracket is closer to the selection committee’s thinking then it’s Frisco or bust for the Tops.
Bracketville — Next Four Out
Another great blog that devotes itself exclusively to Bracketology. WKU went from an 11 seed to the eight team out after their loss to Middle. Several of the teams ahead of the Tops continue to lose so there is hope that a strong February will help the Tops creep up.
Haslemetrics — 12 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 relatively strong resume he as the Tops deserving of a 12 seed which would probably put them in a first round match-up with former Hilltopper Kevin Willard’s Seton Hall squad in the first round. WKU is one of the last teams in according to Haslem.
Heat Check — 12 Seed, West Region
Eli Boettger has WKU as the second to last team in the tournament. WKU’s reward is a play-in game against a SMU squad they already beat in the Bahamas. If this bracket came to fruition, a talented but inconsistent Arizona would be their reward for advancing into the first round and a tricky match-up against Tom Izzo’s Spartans would make this a tough bracket but that would beat the alternative of not getting in.
Saturday’s loss was a giant missed opportunity for WKU. Had they beaten the Blue Raiders, WKU would have be unanimously in the field across all of the brackets.
While the Hilltoppers at-large hopes aren’t yet dashed, they now have very little margin for error the rest of the way. I think the Tops can only realistically lose one more conference game (Against ODU, UAB or Marshall) if they want to get in as an at-large bid and really need to beat Middle Tennessee on the road to secure one last tier-one win. Until February 24th’s game against ODU the only mantra we can have is just win.
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.