Today\u2019s four No. 1 seeds, Arizona, UConn, Duke, and Michigan, have a combined record of 83-3 heading into the first week of February, with the Wolverines solidifying their place among the elite of the elite by defeating both 2 seed Nebraska at Crisler and 3 seed Michigan State in East Lansing. The quartet of No. 2 seeds\u2019 combined record stands at 81-8, with a three-loss Illinois team ahead of two-loss Nebraska, one-loss Gonzaga, and two-loss Iowa State.<\/p>\n
Two Big Ten teams, the aforementioned Spartans and Purdue, are joined by Houston and Florida on seed line 3, with Kansas, Vanderbilt, Texas Tech, and Virginia occupying the 4 line today.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s still a whole lot of bunching going on among the power conferences, with six Big 12 teams (adding in fifth-seeded BYU) ranked among the top 20, the SEC dominating the middle of the bracket, as eight teams are seeded between lines 4 and 9, and the ACC in a similar boat with fewer teams, as six conference members find themselves in that same group.<\/p>\n
But the Big Ten features the most curious instances of grouping. Of the conference\u2019s 11 entrants, the top five are all ranked among the top 12 overall and could already be considered locks; however, the remaining six are all looking super bubbly. Iowa is the sixth-highest-ranked Big Ten team, as a 9 seed. Wisconsin is right behind the Hawkeyes on seed line 10. Then, there are a pair of league members in both the Last Four Byes (USC and UCLA) and Last Four In (Indiana and Ohio State) groups.<\/p>\n
There are even some odd-looking clusters immediately outside of the field. The first two teams out, Miami and Cal, are from the ACC. Then, add Santa Clara and San Diego State to a group that already includes the Trojans, Bruins, and Golden Bears, and you have a very California-centric Cut Line picture at the start of moving month.<\/p>\n
After today\u2019s full bracket and rundown, I\u2019ll quickly preview what\u2019s an unusually quiet first midweek window of February.<\/p>\n
NOTE: Changes since Friday\u2019s projection<\/a> are noted with (\u2605) for new entrants, (\u25b2) for teams moving up one or more seed lines, and (\u25bc) for teams moving down one or more seed lines.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n (1) West (San Jos\u00e9, Thurs.\/Sat.)San Diego (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n (1) Arizona (Big 12) (8) Saint Mary\u2019s San Diego (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n (5) Alabama (4) Texas Tech Tampa (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n \u25b2(6) Louisville \u25b2(3) Florida St. Louis (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n (7) UCF (2) Nebraska (4) South (Houston, Thurs.\/Sat.)Buffalo (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n (1) Michigan (Big Ten) (8) Villanova Greenville (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n \u25bc(5) BYU (4) Vanderbilt Oklahoma City (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n \u25bc(6) Arkansas Advertisement<\/p>\n (3) Houston Portland (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n \u25b2(7) Texas A&M (SEC) (2) Gonzaga (WCC) (2) East (Washington, D.C., Fri.\/Sun.)Philadelphia (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n (1) UConn (Big East) \u25bc(8) Clemson Portland (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n (5) Tennessee \u25b2(4) Virginia Buffalo (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n (6) North Carolina \u25bc(3) Michigan State Oklahoma City (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n (7) Auburn \u25b2(2) Iowa State (3) Midwest (Chicago, Fri.\/Sun.)Greenville (Thurs.\/Sat.)<\/p>\n (1) Duke (ACC) Advertisement<\/p>\n \u25b2(8) Kentucky Tampa (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n \u25b2(5) Saint Louis (A 10) (4) Kansas Philadelphia (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n (6) St. John\u2019s (3) Purdue St. Louis (Fri.\/Sun.)<\/p>\n \u25bc(7) SMU (2) Illinois Rundown<\/p>\n Last Four Byes: USC, New Mexico, UCLA, Virginia Tech ARRIVALS (6): Harvard (Ivy), North Carolina Central (MEAC) Texas, Tulsa (AC), UMBC (AE), Utah Valley (WAC)<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n DEPARTURES: Maryland-Eastern Shore (MEAC), San Diego State (MW), South Florida (AC), UT Arlington (WAC), Vermont (AE), Yale (Ivy)<\/p>\n Conference Breakdown<\/p>\n Big Ten (11): Michigan (auto bid), Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan State, Purdue, Iowa, Wisconsin, USC, UCLA, Indiana (First Four), Ohio State (First Four)<\/p>\n SEC (10): Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Texas A&M (auto bid), Kentucky, Georgia, Texas (First Four)<\/p>\n ACC (8): Duke (auto bid), Virginia, North Carolina, Louisville, SMU, Clemson, NC State, Virginia Tech<\/p>\n Big 12 (8): Arizona (auto bid), Iowa State, Houston, Kansas, Texas Tech, BYU, UCF, TCU (First Four)<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Big East (3): UConn (auto bid), St. John\u2019s, Villanova<\/p>\n MW (2): Utah State (auto bid), New Mexico<\/p>\n WCC (2): Gonzaga (auto bid), Saint Mary\u2019s<\/p>\n 24 one-bid conferences<\/p>\n All times are p.m. Eastern unless noted. Games are listed in rough order of bracket importance.<\/p>\n Tuesday<\/p>\n Mississippi at Tennessee, 7 (ESPN2) St. John\u2019s at DePaul, 8 (Peacock<\/a> ($)) Advertisement<\/p>\n NC State at SMU, 9 (ESPN2) Indiana at USC, 10 (Peacock<\/a> ($)\/NBCSN) The two biggest games from an at-large perspective tonight are Indiana\u2019s attempt to sweep its L.A. road trip and NC State\u2019s visit to SMU. Otherwise, the highlights come from likely one-bid conferences. Undefeated Miami will look to extend its winning streak to 23 by sweeping a Buffalo team that took them to overtime in Oxford. One-loss Saint Louis faces a tricky road game at Davidson, who sits four games behind the Billikens in the Atlantic 10 standings. In the Valley, Belmont now leads the conference by a full two games with three-time defending Arch Madness champ Drake visiting Curb tonight. Meanwhile, two of the MVC\u2019s three 8-4 teams, UIC and Murray State, meet in Kentucky.<\/p>\n Wednesday<\/p>\n Texas A&M at Alabama, 7 (SECN) Advertisement<\/p>\n Colorado at Baylor, 8 (Peacock<\/a> ($)) Oklahoma at Kentucky, 9 (ESPN2) Utah State at New Mexico, 11 (FS1) Things pick up a bit on Wednesday, with the night\u2019s biggest game set for Tuscaloosa. The host Crimson Tide, fresh off a 100-77 loss to Florida, will look to knock visiting Texas A&M into a tie for first with the Gators, who the Aggies happen to play on Saturday at Reed Arena. The bubble picture could become even more muddled, thanks to Seton Hall-Nova, BYU-Oklahoma State, Clemson-Stanford, and Iowa-Washington. Otherwise, there are lots of potential trap games for teams like Michigan State, Louisville, Cal, and Kentucky. There are also three American Conference contests that could shake up that race. Co-leaders Tulsa and Charlotte both hit the road to visit teams sitting two games back in the loss column, while South Florida, a game behind, hosts a UTSA team that\u2019s 0-9 in AC play.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Thursday<\/p>\n Penn State at Michigan, 6:30 (FS1) Ohio State at Maryland, 8:30 (FS1) Cal State Bakersfield at UC Irvine, 10 (ESPN+<\/a> ($)) The only thing that could cost Michigan a spot on the top seed line in Friday\u2019s projection would be an unlikely home loss to Penn State. Otherwise, there are only two other scheduled games with at-large impact. West Virginia heads to Cincinnati with both teams well down the bubble pecking order, while the back half of the FS1 doubleheader sees the last team in, Ohio State, visiting a bad Maryland team. Elsewhere, there are some crucial matchups in several likely one-bid leagues, with the intriguing America East and WAC races taking center stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s four No. 1 seeds, Arizona, UConn, Duke, and Michigan, have a combined record of 83-3 heading into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,130,420,8577,1739,1995,231,772,1544,9060,4256,7065,2098,661,6936,12639],"class_list":["post-580331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-espn","tag-florida","tag-iowa-state","tag-michigan","tag-michigan-state","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-ohio-state","tag-san-diego-state","tag-south-florida","tag-texas","tag-texas-tech","tag-virginia","tag-virginia-tech"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116008696396325493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
(16) LIU (NEC)<\/p>\n
(9) Utah State (MW)<\/p>\n
\u25b2(12) Stephen F. Austin (Southland)<\/p>\n
\u25b2(13) Winthrop (Big South)<\/p>\n
(11) Miami (Ohio) (MAC)<\/p>\n
(14) ETSU (SoCon)<\/p>\n
(10) UCLA<\/p>\n
(15) Austin Peay (ASUN)<\/p>\n
\u25bc(16) Navy (Patriot)<\/p>\n
\u25bc(9) Georgia<\/p>\n
(12) Belmont (MVC)<\/p>\n
(13) UNCW (CAA)<\/p>\n
(11) Virginia Tech<\/p>\n
(14) North Dakota State (Summit)<\/p>\n
\u25b2(10) USC<\/p>\n
\u2605(15) Harvard (Ivy)<\/p>\n
\u2605\/\u2605(16) UMBC (AE)\/North Carolina Central (MEAC)<\/p>\n
(9) Iowa<\/p>\n
\u2605(12) Tulsa (AC)<\/p>\n
\u2605(13) Utah Valley (WAC)<\/p>\n
\u2605\/\u2014 (11) Texas\/Indiana<\/p>\n
\u25b2(14) Portland State (Big Sky)<\/p>\n
(10) Wisconsin<\/p>\n
\u25b2(15) UT Martin (OVC)<\/p>\n
(16) Merrimack (MAAC)\/Bethune-Cookman (SWAC)<\/p>\n
(9) NC State<\/p>\n
(12) Liberty (CUSA)<\/p>\n
(13) UC Irvine (Big West)<\/p>\n
(11) TCU\/Ohio State<\/p>\n
\u25b2(14) Wright State (Horizon)<\/p>\n
(10) New Mexico<\/p>\n
(15) Troy (Sun Belt)<\/p>\n
Last Four IN: Texas, Indiana, TCU, Ohio State
First Four OUT: Miami (Fla.), California, San Diego State, Santa Clara
Next Four Out: Baylor, Seton Hall, VCU, Washington<\/p>\n
South Carolina at Texas, 7 (SECN)
Boston College at Duke, 7 (ACCN)
Xavier at UConn, 7 (Peacock<\/a> ($)\/NBCSN)
Miami (Ohio) at Buffalo, 6:30 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Akron at Eastern Michigan, 6:30 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
VCU at Fordham, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n
UIC at Murray State, 8 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Little Rock at UT Martin, 8 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n
Pitt at Virginia, 9 (ACCN)
Saint Louis at Davidson, 9 (CBSSN)
Drake at Belmont, 9 (MVC TV\/ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Nevada at Boise State, 9 (MWN<\/a>)
Air Force at Grand Canyon, 9 (MWN<\/a>)<\/p>\n
Rutgers at UCLA, 9:30 (BTN)
Wyoming at San Diego State, 11 (CBSSN)<\/p>\n
UCF at Houston, 7 (FS1)
Seton Hall at Villanova, 6:30 (Peacock<\/a> ($)\/NBCSN)
Michigan State at Minnesota, 7 (BTN)
Notre Dame at Louisville, 7 (ESPN2)
Creighton at Georgetown, 7:30 (Peacock<\/a> ($))
Butler at Providence, 7 (Peacock<\/a> ($))
Duquesne at George Mason, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Tulsa at Florida Atlantic, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
UTSA at South Florida, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Charlotte at Wichita State, 7:30 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Liberty at Delaware, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Furman at ETSU, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Troy at Georgia State, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Wright State at Robert Morris, 7 (ESPNU\/ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Navy at Lafayette, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n
Georgia Tech at California, 8 (ACCN)
Lipscomb at Austin Peay, 8 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Maryland-Eastern Shore at South Carolina State, 8 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n
BYU at Oklahoma State, 9 (FS1)
Northwestern at Illinois, 9 (BTN)<\/p>\n
Clemson at Stanford, 10 (ACCN)
Iowa at Washington, 11 (BTN)
Gonzaga at Portland, 10 (KUNP\/KHQ\/ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Santa Clara at Pacific, 10 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
San Diego at Saint Mary\u2019s, 10 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n
West Virginia at Cincinnati, 7 (ESPN2)
William & Mary at UNCW, 7 (CBSSN)
Vermont at Maine, 6 (NESN\/ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Binghamton at UMBC, 6 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
UMass Lowell at NJIT, 7 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
New Haven at LIU, 7 (NEC Front Row<\/a>)<\/p>\n
Abilene Christian at Utah Valley, 8 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Denver at North Dakota State, 8 (Summit League Network<\/a>)
Southern Indiana at UT Martin, 8:30 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n
UT Arlington at Utah Tech, 9 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))
Tarleton at Cal Baptist, 10 (ESPN+<\/a> ($))<\/p>\n