Bracketology 2023: Duke, Penn State, Marquette and Utah State among biggest winners

San Diego State Aztecs

When it comes to Bracketology involving the Mountain West, all of the talk has been on the bubble teams in the league. But the one that has flown under the radar is the top team San Diego State, who didn’t have anything to worry about entering this week.

Still, the Aztecs had some seeding to take care of. They have a top-20 NET ranking, no bad losses and the neutral site win over Ohio State got a little boost after their run in the Big Ten Tournament. Still, mid-majors without many quality wins have a history of being placed in the 8/9 seed range and they needed to make sure no bad loss put them in that position.

San Diego State happened to be on upset alert in its first game, trailing 8-seed Colorado State in the second half. But they survived multiple attempts by the Rams at the end for the 64-61 victory. It was a much easier time in the semifinals against upstart San Jose State, getting the 64-49 win.

The Aztecs were able to pull out the 62-57 victory over Utah State to win the Mountain West title, along with getting another Quad 1 win. This week cemented them in the 5-6 seed range and definitely avoiding the 8/9 range, which was in the mix had they lost to Colorado State.