Bracketology 2024: Big wins boost Kentucky and Creighton in last projected field of February

Midwest Region (Detroit)

1.) Purdue vs. 16.) Norfolk State/Colgate

8.) Oklahoma vs. 9.) Mississippi State

5.) Clemson vs. 12.) Princeton

4.) San Diego State vs. 13.) UNC-Wilmington

6.) Washington State vs. 11.) Virginia/Cincinnati

3.) Iowa State vs. 14.) High Point

7.) Florida Atlantic vs. 10.) Nevada

2.) Tennessee vs. 15.) Fairfield

Despite a loss at Ohio State this week, the Purdue Boilermakers are still the top team in the Midwest region looking to book a trip to Detroit. After knocking off Rutgers, Purdue is now 24-3, with a resume average of 1.5 with a gaudy 9-3 record in quad 1, and the average net rankings of their wins is 83. After Sunday's game with Michigan, they prepare for the Big Ten Tournament by finishing with Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

For the Boilermakers to reach the final four they could potentially have to go through two members of last year’s final four in No. 4 seed San Diego State and No. 7 seed Florida Atlantic. The bottom half of the bracket has two elite defensive clubs in No. 2 Tennessee and No. 3 Iowa State who could lock down Purdue’s guards should they meet. The NET leader in the Ivy League the Princeton Tigers also lurk as the No. 12 seed and as history has shown, aren’t afraid of the big stage.

The team to focus on in the Midwest region is the No. 6 seed Washington State who finds themselves in the hunt for a Pac-12 title with a record of 21-7. The Cougars are just a half-game behind Arizona for the top spot in the league but would hold the tiebreaker over the Wildcats thanks to a season sweep. We’re talking about a Cougars team that is a top-100 team on every Kenpom metric on both ends of the floor except three-point shooting where they rank 137th. The long ball isn’t a big part of the arsenal for Kyle Smith’s team as they are 30th in the country with nearly 57% of their points coming inside the arc.