That was an exciting weekend. Unless you were a fan of a No. 1 seed. Then, it was pretty harrowing.
Kansas got drilled at home by TCU 83-60 on Saturday to start things off. It was the Horned Frogs' first win at Allen Fieldhouse. At the time, it appeared that would knock the Jayhawks off the top line of the bracket.
However, Houston had other ideas. The Cougars dropped a game at home to Temple 56-55. For now, that's a Quadrant 3 loss for Houston and that sent the Cougars down to a No. 2 seed and preserved a spot on the top line for Kansas. The Jayhawks are now fourth overall, behind rival Kansas State, which replaced Houston as a No. 1 seed.
Before that, Purdue tried and somehow failed to blow a 16-point lead to Maryland at Mackey Arena. The Terrapins rallied and had a chance to send the game to overtime on the final shot, but it missed. The Boilermakers remain the overall No. 1 seed.
Only Alabama had an easy go of it for teams at the top of the bracket. The Crimson Tide throttled Mizzou and are still the overall No. 2 seed.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm's latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
Looking back at a bad loss
TCU has moved up to the No. 3-line with that win over Kansas. The Horned Frogs are the highest seeded team with a Quad 4 loss and the only such team in the top half of the bracket.
Northwestern State, currently ranked 190th in the NET, knocked off TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, back on Nov. 14, but the Horned Frogs were without two starters, including star Mike Miles Jr. The NCAA Tournament selection committee does give some consideration for teams playing games shorthanded, but losses are still losses. They do not ignore the game nor pretend the team may have won at full strength. In the end, they give a little more weight to how a team played over the course of the season with the roster it is taking into the tournament.
The committee has complete information on things like player and coach availability, travel issues, etc. - much more information than I could ever get myself. Conferences provide that information directly to the committee.
Big Ten has most teams in bracket
The Big Ten is still the most represented conference in the bracket with eight teams. After Purdue, the next highest seeded teams are Rutgers, Indiana and Illinois as No. 6 seeds. Penn State is one of the last four in the bracket and three other Big Ten teams are among the first four out.
The ACC, which is having another down year, although better than last season, has seven teams in the bracket. None are seeded higher than No. 3 seed Virginia.
The Mountain West leads the non-majors with five teams, however none are seeded higher than league leader San Diego State and New Mexico at No. 8.
The West Coast Conference and American Athletic Conference each have one team besides their current leaders.
