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Bracketology 2023: Kansas State, Arizona among week’s biggest winners

By Tristan Freeman

Dec 17, 2022; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Kerr Kriisa (25) celebrates during the second half against the Tennessee Volunteers at McKale Center. Mandatory Credit: Zachary BonDurant-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2022; Tucson, Arizona, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Kerr Kriisa (25) celebrates during the second half against the Tennessee Volunteers at McKale Center. Mandatory Credit: Zachary BonDurant-USA TODAY Sports /
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Duke Basketball
Bracketology Duke Blue Devils Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports /

This was an interesting week when it came to Bracketology, especially when it comes to who was considered “winners” and who were “losers”. On the wrong including Gonzaga, whose bid for a 4th straight No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday ended with a loss to LMU, while UCLA’s own bid hurt with its defeat to Arizona on Saturday.

But there were plenty of teams that should be viewed as “winners” for various reasons. Here are the 10 teams that caught my eye the most.

Arizona Wildcats

It was a good week for Arizona for multiple reasons. The first is that they got a major home win over UCLA. which keeps them in both the Pac-12 regular season title hunt for a potential higher seed over the Bruins if only one of them ends up in the West Region. They also benefitted from Gonzaga losing to the Lions as well.

The Wildcats have a top-12 NET ranking and currently, no Quad 3 defeats as Utah, Washington State, and Oregon all are in the Quad 2 range. As long as that continues and Arizona can run through the rest of the Pac-12 before a rematch with the Bruins, they can still make a late case for a 1 seed.

Duke Blue Devils

Duke got a nice Quad 2 home win over Miami, which was important for both its resume and positioning in the ACC standings. The Blue Devils have a NET ranking in the top 30, second in the conference next to Virginia. And with no losses outside of Quad 1, the team has a good chance to move up a couple of seed lines in the next two weeks, including a big road game at Virginia Tech on Monday.

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