Bracketology 2023: Latest field of 68 projections heading into March

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) /

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Bracketology Purdue Boilermakers center Zach Edey Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports /

East Region (New York)

(1) Purdue vs. (16) Youngstown State
(8) Duke vs. (9) Auburn
(5) Xavier vs. (12) VCU
(4) Iowa State vs. (13) Charleston
(6) TCU vs. (11) Wisconsin/USC
(3) Tennessee vs. (14) Furman
(7) Illinois vs. (10) Nevada
(2) Texas vs. (15) Vermont

The final region to look at is the East Region where the Purdue Boilermakers are the No. 1 seed. The team that ranks 5th in the NET is 24-5 and the last No. 1 seed weeks after being the bracket’s top overall seed. The biggest reason for the fall is that four of their five losses have come in the month of February, including a season sweep at the hands of Indiana. They have nine quad 1 wins and five more in quad 2 with the 25th strongest schedule with metrics that have them as a top-five team which is the reason they find themselves still on the No. 1 seed line despite the lackluster February.

For my money, the East Region has the toughest top-five seeds of any of the regions in the bracket. The No. 2 seed is a Texas team that is second in the Big 12, the same can be said for No. 5 Xavier in the Big East. The No. 3 seed is the SEC’s highest-rated NET team, Tennessee and the No. 4 seed is one of the five other ranked Big 12 teams, Iowa State. If Purdue makes it to Madison Square Garden they will have earned it by having to potentially go through some of those teams.

If there is a team I want to watch in this region it’s No. 13 Charleston. The Cougars at one time had a case for an at-large bid if they needed it, but a couple of albeit close quad 3 losses to Drexel and the team they find themselves tied with for the regular-season title, Hofstra and 338th ranked strength of schedule likely ended those hopes. Another thing that hurt the Cougars is those losses came within a week of each other which is bad optics for a mid-major with at-large hopes. Aside from that, all Charleston has done is gone 27-1, a November loss to North Carolina being the only blemish. An 11-1 non-conference slate with wins over Kent State and Virginia Tech show that the Cougars are going to be dangerous for whoever matches up with them.

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