Bracketology 2023 projected field: Alabama joins the No. 1 seeds

Who’s in? and Who’s out?

First Four

The foursome headed to Dayton will include Virginia Tech doing battle with Arizona State in the East region for the right to take on No. 6 seed Auburn. In the South region a couple more No. 11 seeds, Mississippi State and Central Florida will take the floor with the winner taking on Rutgers. But with the margin of error so small these grouping of teams will continue to shuffle over the next month or so while things become more defined.

First four out

Let’s take a look at the teams that just missed the cut, but have time to find themselves on the right side of the bubble in March. The first four teams out of the field in this edition are Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Northwestern. Wake Forest and Northwestern have big opportunities to boost their resumes this week. The Demon Deacons’ next three games come against Clemson, Virginia, and Pitt, while the Wildcats get a home game with Wisconsin on Saturday. The Kentucky Wildcats, who almost everyone had written off for dead, responded by handling Tennessee on the road 63-56.

Next four out

The next four teams out of the field this time around are centered on the west coast with USC, Utah, and Nevada on the list, with the Big 12’s Oklahoma State finishing off the list. The team I like the most in this list is the USC Trojans whose worst metric is their BPI rank of 68 and have wins over Auburn and another team in this group, Utah. The Trojans came within a whisker of knocking off UCLA on the road following a 70-68 loss.

With home-and-home tilts with both the Arizona schools and a chance to get revenge on the Bruins, Andy Enfield’s team has a chance to solidify their standing.