Busting Brackets
Fansided

Bracketology 2020: Examining mid-major basketball at-large profiles

By Joe Weidenburner

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: The NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 8: The NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee meets on Wednesday afternoon, March 8, 2017 in New York City. The committee is gathered in New York to begin the five-day process of selecting and seeding the field of 68 teams for the NCAA MenÕs Basketball Tournament. The final bracket will be released on Sunday evening following the completion of conference tournaments. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
6 of 10
Next
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 12: Head coach Randy Bennett of the Saint Mary’s Gaels (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 12: Head coach Randy Bennett of the Saint Mary’s Gaels (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Saint Mary’s Gaels

25-7 | NET: 30 | KPI/SOR Avg: 33 | BPI/POM/SAG Avg: 38

Fresh of its dramatic win over BYU in the WCC semifinals, St. Mary’s has a rematch with Gonzaga for the WCC tournament championship which it won last season. Regardless of the outcome of this matchup, St. Mary’s is in no danger of not hearing its name called on Selection Sunday.

Overall, the resume is solid, backed by a good 8-5 record across Quad 1 and Quad 2 opportunities and a 12-4 mark in road and neutral-site games. Each of its Quad 1 games has been a Quad1A matchup as of this writing, with a 3-4 record, and the four losses have come against Dayton on a neutral court, home and away against Gonzaga, and at BYU by two points, each a top-10 NET team. The three Quad 1A wins are impressive with a home and a neutral court win over BYU and a neutral court win over Wisconsin.

There are two home Quad 3 losses on the resume which will hamper seeding a bit, although one is to Big South tournament champion and NCAA tournament-bound Winthrop. Overall, the resume and predictive metrics tend to agree on St. Mary’s being included in the field and seeded somewhere between the 7-seed and 9-seed lines.

Bracketology has St. Mary’s in an 8-9 matchup against Rutgers as of this writing, and that seeding looks about right, though if the Gaels win a second consecutive WCC tournament championship over Gonzaga, I think they’ll be bumped up a seed line.

Bracketology Prediction: 7-seed, South Region

Home/Bracketology