The Day of Champions

Welcome to the Saturday before Selection Sunday, aka the Day of Champions. Fourteen tournament champions were crowned today. For teams on the bubble, things went...well, not bad...as only one bid was stolen. Stephen F. Austin, a possible at large, won the Southland. Providence was already likely in, but it solidified its position. But...

Bracket Brief for March 15, 2014

Seed	South (1) Memphis (Th/Sa)	East (4) NYC (Fr/Su)	West (2) Anaheim (Th/Sa)	Midwest (3) Indy (Fr/Su)
Site 1 16 8 9	Orlando (Th/Sa) Florida Mount St. Mary's G. Washington BYU	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Wisconsin Albany/Coast. Car. Massachusetts Memphis	San Diego (Fr/Su) Arizona Weber State Texas Harvard	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Wichita State CS Northr./TX So. Oregon Oklahoma State
Site 5 12 4 13	San Antonio (Fr/Su) New Mexico Ariz. St./Neb. Syracuse Stephen F. Austin	San Diego (Fr/Su) UCLA Kan. St./Dayton VCU Georgia State	Spokane (Th/Sa) Gonzaga Toledo Connecticut Delaware	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Cincinnati Tennessee Iowa State Manhattan
Site 3 14 6 11	Orlando (Th/Sa) Louisville NC Central Ohio State Southern Miss	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Duke Tulsa Michigan State Louisiana Tech	Spokane (Th/Sa) San Diego State New Mexico State Saint Louis North Dakota State	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Michigan Mercer North Carolina Providence
Site 7 10 2 15	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Kentucky Xavier Kansas Milwaukee	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Pittsburgh Stanford Villanova American	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Oklahoma Colorado Creighton Wofford	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Baylor Saint Joseph's Virginia Eastern Kentucky

Note: Through games of March 14, 2014, including America East and Conference USA championship games. Teams in italics below represent projected automatic bids. Teams in bold below represent secured automatic bids. The rankings at the top of each column are based on the overall seeds of the top four teams, so the winner of the regional with the team seeded #1 overall would meet the winner of the regional with the team seeded #4 overall.

More Top Teams Fall as Conference Tournaments Roll Through Friday

Another full day of major conference tournament hoops, and another day of upsets. We start out in the ACC, where most-of-the-season favorite Syracuse fell to upstart North Carolina State, who needs to win the whole tournament to make the field. And Pittsburgh took out North Carolina after giving up a 20-point lead late.

Several Major-Conference, At-Large Teams Are Upset in Their First Games

As conference tournaments narrow, upsets will happen, and the major one happened at Madison Square Garden. In the Mecca, Seton Hall took out former-potential-#1-seed Villanova. It is highly unlikely with this loss that Villanova can hold its #1 seed, especially if Kansas wins the Big 12 tournament or one of the ACC's favorites keeps hold of the conference.

Bracket Brief for March 13, 2014

Seed	South (1) Memphis (Th/Sa)	East (4) NYC (Fr/Su)	West (2) Anaheim (Th/Sa)	Midwest (3) Indy (Fr/Su)
Site 1 16 8 9	Orlando (Th/Sa) Florida Wofford Texas Harvard	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Villanova Stony Brook Pittsburgh SMU	San Diego (Fr/Su) Arizona Weber St./TX So. Memphis Baylor	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Wichita State M. St. M's/Cst. Car. George Washington Iowa
Site 5 12 4 13	Spokane (Th/Sa) Saint Louis Stan./St. John's Cincinnati Manhattan	San Diego (Fr/Su) Michigan State Toledo VCU Stephen F. Austin	Spokane (Th/Sa) Gonzaga St. Joe's/Tenn. San Diego State Delaware	San Antonio (Fr/Su) North Carolina North Dakota State Iowa State Louisiana Tech
Site 3 14 6 11	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Creighton UC Irvine New Mexico Colorado	Orlando (Th/Sa) Louisville NC Central Ohio State Xavier	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Duke Mercer Oregon Southern Miss	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Virginia Georgia State Oklahoma Dayton
Site 7 10 2 15	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Kentucky Nebraska Kansas Eastern Kentucky	Buffalo (Th/Sa) UCLA Oklahoma State Syracuse Milwaukee	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Massachusetts BYU Michigan Utah Valley	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Connecticut Arizona State Wisconsin American

Note: Through games of March 12, 2014. Teams in italics in multi-bid conferences below represent projected automatic bids. Teams in bold represent secured automatic bids. The rankings at the top of each column are based on the overall seeds of the top four teams, so the winner of the regional with the team seeded #1 overall would meet the winner of the regional with the team seeded #4 overall.

Day of Preliminaries, and American Enters the 2014 NCAA Bracket

Most of Wednesday's action consisted of the first round of many tournaments. So, essentially, most games involved teams far off the bracket bubble. A few involved bubble teams, but only one such team lost: Georgetown. Georgetown was pretty far off the edge of the bracket anyway, so it is not Earth shaking.

Bracketologist Yahoo! Group

I set up a bracket pick-em group for my fellow bracketologists and me on Yahoo! I figure after we seed them all, we might as well pick them all too. And you could win a billion dollars. The Yahoo bracket group is here, feel free to message me on Twitter at @BracketBriefer for the password.

Happy picking everyone, and good luck on Selection Sunday with your bracket projections!

Upset Directional State: Conference Tourneys Go To The Spoilers

The big story this year is how many #1 seeds are falling in their conference tournaments. So far, no bubble spots have been stolen, but at this rate, bubble teams should be terrified. Two upsetters, Milwaukee and Mount St. Mary's, got their automatic bids Tuesday night, on the home court of their opponents no less. But a couple of favorites, North Dakota State and Gonzaga, got their bids too. The important thing to note from tonight's losing teams is that BYU is still safe for an at-large bid.

Bracket for March 11, 2014

Seed	South (1) Memphis (Th/Sa)	East (4) NYC (Fr/Su)	Midwest (2) Indy (Fr/Su)	West (3) Anaheim (Th/Sa)
Site 1 16 8 9	Orlando (Th/Sa) Florida Wofford/Coast. Car. George Washington Arizona State	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Villanova Stony Brook Massachusetts Iowa	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Wichita State Wright State Baylor Memphis	San Diego (Fr/Su) Arizona Weber St./TX So. Texas Harvard
Site 5 12 4 13	San Diego (Fr/Su) North Carolina St. Joe's/Neb. Iowa State Louisiana Tech	Spokane (Th/Sa) VCU North Dakota State Cincinnati Manhattan	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Ohio State Tenn./So. Miss Saint Louis Stephen F. Austin	Spokane (Th/Sa) Michigan State Toledo San Diego State Georgia State
Site 3 14 6 11	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Michigan Boston U Oklahoma Stanford	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Duke Delaware Gonzaga St. John's	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Creighton Mercer New Mexico Xavier	Orlando (Th/Sa) Louisville NC Central Oregon Dayton
Site 7 10 2 15	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Connecticut BYU Syracuse Robert Morris	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Pittsburgh Oklahoma State Wisconsin Utah Valley	St. Louis (Fr/Su) UCLA SMU Kansas UC Irvine	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Kentucky Colorado Virginia Eastern Kentucky

Note: Through games of March 10, 2014. Teams in italics below represent projected automatic bids. Teams in bold below represent secured automatic bids. The rankings at the top of each column are based on the overall seeds of the top four teams, so the winner of the regional with the team seeded #1 overall would meet the winner of the regional with the team seeded #4 overall.

Nothin' But Postseason

The regular season is now closed, and the major conferences have a few days off before their tournaments start. That left Monday to the little guys, who crowned three more champions, all who will receive automatic NCAA bids. Only one of those teams, however, won its conference's regular season championship, so clearly the NIT is filling up with mid-majors.

Bracket Brief for March 10, 2014

Seed	South (1) Memphis (Th/Sa)	East (4) NYC (Fr/Su)	Midwest (2) Indy (Fr/Su)	West (3) Anaheim (Th/Sa)
Site 1 16 8 9	Orlando (Th/Sa) Florida Wofford/Co. Car. Geo. Wash. Arizona State	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Villanova Stony Brook Pittsburgh Harvard	St. Louis (Fr/Su) Wichita State Weber St./TX So. Baylor Memphis	San Diego (Fr/Su) Arizona Utah Valley Texas Iowa
Site 5 12 4 13	San Diego (Fr/Su) North Carolina Stephen F. Austin Saint Louis Iona	Spokane (Th/Sa) Ohio State Louisiana Tech Iowa State North Dakota State	San Antonio (Fr/Su) Michigan State Tenn./St. Joe's Creighton Toledo	San Antonio (Fr/Su) VCU So. Miss/Neb. Cincinnati Georgia State
Site 3 14 6 11	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Virginia Delaware Oklahoma Xavier	Orlando (Th/Sa) Louisville NC Central Oregon Dayton	Spokane (Th/Sa) San Diego State Mercer Gonzaga St. John's	Raleigh (Fr/Su) Duke Boston U New Mexico Stanford
Site 7 10 2 15	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Connecticut BYU Wisconsin Eastern Kentucky	Buffalo (Th/Sa) Kentucky Colorado Syracuse Robert Morris	St. Louis (Fr/Su) UCLA SMU Kansas UC Irvine	Milwaukee (Th/Sa) Massachusetts Oklahoma State Michigan Wright State

Note: Through games of March 9, 2014. Teams in italics below represent projected automatic bids. Teams in bold below represent secured automatic bids. The rankings at the top of each column are based on the overall seeds of the top four teams, so the winner of the regional with the team seeded #1 overall would meet the winner of the regional with the team seeded #4 overall.

Conference Tournaments: Hurting Mid-Major Conferences Since Forever

Today, we saw the stupidity behind conference tournaments. This season, the America East decided to host its conference tournament in Albany. #1 seed Vermont, who lost only one game in the conference all year, was stuck playing #4 Albany, who lost seven conference games. Not entirely surprisingly, behind its home crowd, Albany knocked off Vermont, eliminating who is clearly the America East's best team from tournament consideration.