The March Madness Bracket Creates Daily Madness

It is an interesting job, this one of being a bracketologist. As I was working on tonight's bracket, I put my blinders on to the basketball world, ensuring that I used only the games completed as of last night. Little did I know how much was changing around me. A wealth of games made what would have been a huge impact on the way that the most recent bracket came out. Let's look at some of the most interesting of today's games:

Wichita State 70, St. Louis 65: I'm not sure in the bracket that this would have done a lot for Wichita State's seed. It is a good win, and it will matter later, but Wichita State still doesn't feel like a 3-seed yet. And although it isn't a bad loss, I could have imagined flipping St. Louis with Memphis because the Billikens were at home.

Miami-FL 60, Arizona State 57: The biggest problem here for ASU is that Miami, while an ACC opponent, isn't even on the bracket radar. The loss, at the Wooden Legacy in Anaheim, should be alarming for the Sun Devils, as Jahii Carson was held to 2 for 14 shooting and 8 points. If Miami figured out some kind of blueprint, ASU may have a long season in the potentially-strong Pac-12.

LSU 60, Butler 58: This was a big win for LSU, who, at least for the moment, is squarely on the bubble. They showed they could take out a similarly situated team on a neutral court. LSU may have come out of the playoff game with this win, and Butler may have dropped further off the bubble.

VCU 81, Belmont 68: This was a good away win for VCU, who has played a relatively tough schedule so far, and it could have moved them up a seed line. Belmont, on the other hand, was a team with at least the hope that it could play itself onto the bubble. They're going to need to get some of these winnable games against good opponents though to avoid having to win the conference tournament to get a berth.

UAB 63, North Carolina 59: I nervously put the Tar Heels on the 5 line, unsure of what it means when a team lost at home to Belmont but then defeated Louisville on a neutral court. This game further shows that UNC fans are going to be in for a roller coaster ride this year.

George Washington 60, Creighton 53: Creighton followed up an impressive 28-point win over Arizona State with a good loss to San Diego State and this iffy loss to GW. The SDSU loss showed Creighton is vulnerable even if Doug McDermott gets his usual amount points against a good team, and the GW loss showed that Creighton is plainly average if McDermott is shut down.

Memphis 73, Oklahoma State 68: This was a very important game in many regards. First, Oklahoma State would have lost its 1 seed, and this early in the season, may have dropped two seed lines. Having one of the biggest stars in the tournament only gets you so far with the committee (even if they would say that the Smart factor wouldn't matter). We were supposed to think the world of the Cowboys after they beat the Tigers so badly in Stillwater, but then they see Memphis on a neutral court, and they end up utterly dominated in the second half. For Memphis, this shows that they will be extremely tough in the NCAA Tournament's neutral sites, and it provides further proof that road losses aren't that terrible.

San Diego State 67, Marquette 59: San Diego State is a very good team who is going to have to deal with the fact that their own conference will hurt them in strength of schedule this year. The Mountain West has been quite good as of late, but it is looking at two bids right now. So it will need to get its wins whenever it can, and these consecutive wins over Creighton and Marquette will serve them well in March. Marquette is a bit of an odd duck, losing only to Ohio State and at Arizona State before this game, with fairly dominating wins otherwise. Marquette is the definition of a team with great losses and bad wins. They're going to have to beat somebody decent at some point. Like the MWC, this year's Big East will be more challenging from an SOS standpoint, so Marquette needs to do better capitalizing when it can.