Bracketology: Shifting on the top line in the projected field after crazy week
Midwest Region
(1) West Virginia vs. (16) Robert Morris/Penn
(8) Miami vs. (9) Michigan
(4) Wichita State vs. (13) South Dakota State
(5) Arkansas vs. (12) New Mexico State
(6) Tennessee vs. (11) Marquette/Houston
(3) Texas Tech vs. (14) Northern Kentucky
(7) Ohio State vs. (10) Notre Dame
(2) Xavier vs. (15) Stephen F. Austin.
After knocking off Oklahoma this week, the 14-1 West Virginia Mountaineers are more than worthy of snagging a No. 1 seed in this bracket. For head coach Bob Huggins’, he has just as much defensive talent as normal with even more firepower on the offensive end. Already the best defensive player in the country, Jevon Carter has once again added to his offensive game this year. The Mountaineers’ only loss this season came to Texas A&M.
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Xavier may have fallen on the road to Providence this week but they are still deserving of holding on to their No. 2 seed. In addition to the loss that many will latch onto as a sign of weakness for this team, the Musketeers did open up their week with a home win over Butler. J.P. Macura and Trevon Bluiett are two of the top players in the Big East and Chris Mack’s team is good enough to beat anyone in the country.
The No. 3 seed in this region, Texas Tech, is riding high right now. Including the first three games of conference play, the Red Raiders are currently on an 8-game winning streak. Led by Keenan Evans, the team is soaring up the rankings. They jumped two seed lines this week thanks to a dominating road performance in a win over Kansas and a solid home victory over Kansas State.
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Wichita State doesn’t have any high-quality wins at this point in the season but they have been very consistent. Now that Markis McDuffie has returned from injury, the Shockers have been excellent in the early portion of AAC play. Their only two losses have come to Oklahoma at home and to Notre Dame (while they had Bonzie Colson) at a neutral site. Landry Shamet is a name that you need to know come tournament time.
The biggest riser in this region was clearly Ohio State. After knocking off the Michigan State Spartans this past weekend, the Buckeyes shot from a No. 10 seed in last week’s bracket up to the seven line this time around. What Chris Holtmann and Keita Bates-Diop are building this season is fairly incredible and the team could compete for the third-place spot in the conference.