Bracketology: Northwestern continues rise in field of 68

Welcome back to The Catch and Shoot’s bracket projections!

The bracket is broken down into 32 spots given as automatic bids (noted in the bracket with italics), and the remaining 36 are at-large selections.

Teams are evaluated by how they have performed to this point in the season without projecting how they will perform the rest of the season. However, conference champions and auto bids are determined by KenPom projections.

Here’s the full field of 68.

		EAST			SOUTH
Buffalo	1	Villanova		1	Baylor	Tulsa
	16	Mount St. Mary’s/NC Central		16	UC Irvine/Weber State
	8	Wisconsin		8	SMU
	9	Iowa State		9	Indiana
Greenville	5	Purdue		5	Arizona	Salt Lake City
	12	Valparaiso		12	Florida Gulf Coast
	4	North Carolina		4	Virginia
	13	Wichita State		13	Nevada
Buffalo	6	Saint Mary’s		6	Northwestern	Orlando
	11	Georgia/Marquette		11	Arkansas
	3	West Virginia		3	Florida
	14	Monmouth		14	Vermont
Orlando	7	Michigan State		7	Clemson	Indianapolis
	10	South Carolina		10	Dayton
	2	Florida State		2	Kentucky
	15	UNC Asheville		15	Princeton
		WEST			MIDWEST
Salt Lake City	1	Gonzaga		1	Kansas	Tulsa
	16	Sam Houston State		16	Texas Southern
	8	TCU		8	USC
	9	Pittsburgh		9	VCU
Greenville	5	Notre Dame		5	Maryland	Sacramento
	12	Cal/Illinois		12	Chattanooga
	4	Duke		4	Oregon
	13	Lehigh		13	Georgia Southern
Milwaukee	6	Cincinnati		6	Minnesota	Milwaukee
	11	UNC Wilmington		11	Middle Tennessee
	3	Butler		3	Creighton
	14	New Mexico State		14	Akron
Sacramento	7	Virginia Tech		7	Xavier	Indianapolis
	10	Seton Hall		10	Miami
	2	UCLA		2	Louisville
	15	Belmont		15	Fort Wayne

 

Last four in: Georgia, Marquette, Cal, Illinois

Outsiders looking in: Texas Tech, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Wake Forest, Rhode Island

Bids by conference:

ACC — 10

Big Ten — 8

Big East — 6

Big 12 — 5

Pac 12— 5

SEC — 5

AAC — 2

A10 — 2

WCC — 2