WKU Basketball: Bracketology Round-Up — January 31
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 heading into February and the conference season now half 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 win against Marshall has kept WKU in the at-large discussion and these projections reflect that. Here are your updated Bracketology projections for WKU across the internet before the Tops hit the road to Texas.
ESPN — First Four Out
Joe Lunardi held steady in his post weekend projections. He once again put WKU in his 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 — 12 Seed, East Region
Jerry Palm had been an early believer in WKU’s resume. After a weekend of bubble team turmoil, WKU once again finds itself as the last team in Palm’s bracket. If this bracket held true they’d get a date with an NC State team that just played itself into the bracket after beating UNC on Saturday. The reward for beating the Wolfpack would be a date with last year’s runner up in Gonzaga for a potential shot to play in-state rival Kentucky for just the seventh time in program history.
NBC Sports — Next Four Out
Dave Ommen’s bracket was updated on Tuesday He has been on the Middle Tennessee train for most of the season and that won’t change until the Blue Raiders lose again (maybe against ODU on Thursday). His bubble shows alot of power conference teams that WKU will have to overcome to take an at-large spot. He did move WKU up a spot in his bubble pecking order from the eight team to the seventh team out. Until WKU plays it’s last three regular season games taking these baby steps is important, providing they don’t lose before the home stretch.
SB Nation — First Eight Out
Chris Dobbertean moved WKU from the fifth team out of the tournament to the sixth team out during his weekly 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 but also can play themselves out (see Missouri, Notre Dame & Georgia)with a little more margin for error.
Sports Illustrated — First Four Out
Michael Beller held steady in his weekly projections, keeping the Tops as the fourth team out. He does have Purdue as a one seed and SMU as one of the last teams in (despite 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 on Tuesday. He continues to have Middle Tennesse taking C-USA’s lone bid. In this week’s update he tracked several bubble teams but coninues to ignore WKU, not including them 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 held firm in the first eight teams out but did move a spot up to the seventh team out of his bracket. Several of the teams ahead of the Tops continue to lose so there is hope that a strong February will help the Tops continue to 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, putting them in the first four against Marquette. Haslem believes that WKU is one of the last teams that deserve to be in the field but isn’t as confident in the committee feeling the same way.
The Fieldhouse- 12 Seed, South Region
Stewart Mandel transitions from bowl projections to NCAA tournament projections in the Athletic’s first bracket watch. Mandel has WKU as the last team in the field, shipping the Tops out west to play Marquette. Should they survive the Eagles, they’d then face the Florida Gators for the first time since facing eventual National Champion Gators in 2006.
The Sporting News — 11 Seed
Ryan Fagan posted his first bracket update in two weeks and put WKU as the second to last team in the field. He said the following about WKU when talking about each bubble team’s body of work
Western Kentucky is here because the Hilltoppers beat Purdue and SMU on a neutral court
A first four match-up would pit the Tops against Frank Martin’s Gamecocks that have come on strong recently with two solid wins in the past week.
Inside The Hall — Out
An IU blog that updated their bracket on Tuesday. Andy Bottoms doesn’t include WKU in his first four out instead putting South Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Georgia on the cut line. He has Middle Tennessee taking the lone bid for Conference USA as a 12 seed. Bottoms doesn’t appear to be too fond of mid-major conferences with only the West Coast Conference claiming multiple bids. We’ll see if WKU can creep up onto his radar with more losses among the bubble teams listed.
The Comeback — 12 Seed, East Region
Jesse Kramer uses KenPom projections to pick his automatic qualifiers and that thinks WKU will overcome Middle Tennessee before the season ends. Should this bracket come true the Tops would face several tough teams starting with Bob Huggins “Press Virginia” Mountaineers.
Saturday’s win was huge for WKU ability to hang around in these projections. The win gave the Tops another win over a 100ish level team in the RPI. WKU moved into the field in these rankings on the strength of several bubble teams losing.
The Hilltoppers won’t have any opportunities for signature wins over the next seven games and just need to take care of business against the bottom half of Conference USA. I think the Tops can only realistically lose one more conference game (against ODU, UAB or MTSU) 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 24’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.
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