Lunardi's Most Recent Bracketology (3/12 @ 12:15 ET)
Did Notre Dame's overtime loss to Louisville knock the Fighting Irish off the 1-seed line? What effect did the Alabama-Georgia game have on the bubble? How about those three bubblicous teams in the ACC? How important was Penn State's second victory over Wisconsin?
Check back with ESPN.com later for Lunardi's latest bracket. For now, here's a preview:
TOP SEEDS
East: Ohio State
Southwest: Kansas
Southeast: Notre Dame
West: Pittsburgh
*Next In Line: Duke
CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN
Big East (11)
Big Ten (7)
Big 12 (6)
ACC (5)
SEC (4)
Pac-10 (4)
Atlantic 10 (3)
Mountain West (3)
Colonial (2)
West Coast (2)
LAST BYES (avoid First Four games in Dayton)
Richmond
Illinois
Saint Mary's
Clemson
LAST FOUR IN
Virginia Tech
Colorado
USC
Penn State
FIRST FOUR OUT
Alabama
Boston College
Georgia
Memphis
NEXT OUT
UAB
Missouri State
March 12th, 2011 at 12:29 AM ^
I got MICHIGAN VS. Clemson. I had to go to Clemson before Michigan.
GO BLUE!!
March 12th, 2011 at 12:30 AM ^
ND and Pitt are one seeds despite losing. UNLV as high as they are. Colorado and USC in despite being barely on the bubble before today and losing.
Not surprised:
We rule.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
I hope Penn State plays USC in Dayton and beats them.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:35 AM ^
They have had some terrible losses -- I know that none of them occured after Jio Fontan arrived, but still -- and their profile reeks of a middling NIT-caliber team. Goes to show how weak the bubble is this year, I guess.
a large amount that either Duke or UNC end up displacing one of the Big East teams as a #1 seed..
March 12th, 2011 at 12:31 AM ^
that of the teams on that list, the only ones still playing basketball games are Memphis, Bama, Va Tech, Penn State, Richmond and Clemson.
Everyone worrying needs to relax.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:33 AM ^
And they will all be underdogs tomorrow except maybe Memphis.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
And that shouldn't matter. They win and they get the autobid, they lose to UTEP and they won't be getting an at-large.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:32 AM ^
For those who still have a shred of lingering doubt. Please proceed to get off the ledge. We're a lock. That he has the confidence to bump us and Sparty ahead of Illinois proves that.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:36 AM ^
March 12th, 2011 at 12:39 AM ^
And of the ones still playing...
Richmond has Temple tomorrow. Winner likely will win the A-10 autobid, a loss keeps them behind us.
Clemson and VaTech have UNC/Duke tomorrow respectively. Would be shocked if both win.
Penn State has Sparty-One of those teams will fall with a loss.
Bama has Kentucky-Good luck to them on that one. They barely took a Georgia team today that did everything possible to lose.
Memphis has UTEP for the CUSA. Win and they get the autobid. Lose and they're out.
Doubt it. I'm guessing UD gets the auto-bid. Not a team I would want to play after they knocked of Xavier. Eitehr way it won't affect us. We are 100% in
As a Richmond fan (Dad went to UR) I have to think the winner of Richmond-Temple matchup takes it handily. Dayton was sub .500 in the A10, and both UR and Temple won @Dayton. St. Joes is even worse.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:36 AM ^
Okay, that's a relief.
BTW, why do they keep changing the names of the regions? What happened to the Midwest?
March 12th, 2011 at 12:41 AM ^
They did that this year specifically IIRC, since what would be the midwest regional is in San Antonio, it was more geographically appropriate to call it southwest
March 12th, 2011 at 12:52 AM ^
who lost one in this most recent bracketology?
March 12th, 2011 at 12:55 AM ^
Looks like the SEC with Bama and Georgia both out. Should've been the Pac-10 really. USC doesn't look too good for a bid losing to Arizona today.
Not sure if BC had fallen off before today's loss, but Lunardi had had that league getting in 6 for quite some time.
You're right, hard to tell because he keeps updating without publishing a new bracket.
Since last night, the Big Ten (PSU) and Pac-10 (USC) gained a bid while the ACC (BC) and SEC (Georgia) lost a bid.
The Big 10, Big 12, and ACC were all at 6 before yesterday's games.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^
...is that we end up a 10/11 seed. Much prefer a 10 as that 7/10 vs 2 game always produces an upset or 2.
I want ND in the second round so I can justify picking us to the Sweet Sixteen purely out of hatred. So we need to be a 9.
If you're looking for hatred as a motivator, a 10/11 seed could put us in a pod with SDSU, coached by Steve Fisher...
Steve Fisher has reason to hate Michigan. Not so much the other way around.
March 12th, 2011 at 11:58 AM ^
On the negative side, Fisher was either complicit in the Ed Martin Fiasco, or he was an overwhelmed ostrich for whom burying his head in the sand didn't work. On the positive side, he took a team that chronically underacheved under Bill Frieder and won the NCAA Tournament with them.
The tiebreaker: the NCAA Championship banner that is still hanging at Crisler. AFAIC, Fisher gets a free pass for his later transgressions for contributing to one of the most pleasant surprises in University of Michigan history. I would go so far as to say that the NCAA Championship was even more of a shock than the football team's 24-12 win over TSIO in 1969.
The 1969 game, while it was huge, was only one game. Michigan wasn't seen as having much a of a chance, but they were seen as having a little one. OTOH, the basketball tournament took six wins, and Michigan was an afterthought going in. It's not like Michigan got an easy schedule, either. They had to beat UNC in the sweet sixteen, and #1 Illinois had beaten them twice that season. Illinois was a powerhouse team that year, and had recruited the Chicago area extremely well.
When you beat the #1 team in the country in the Final Four after they had beaten you by 12 and 16 points, it has to count for something. Sean Higgins' short baseline jumper is still indelibly etched into my head, 22 year later. Also, while Michigan got a lot of great publicity for the 1969 win and it ushered in a new era of Michigan football, they didn't get a National Championship out of it.
So, even with the ten years of BS caused by the Martin Fiasco, I'll give Fisher a pass for 1989.
March 12th, 2011 at 12:25 PM ^
Michigan hoops in 1989 was a 3 seed in the tournament, they were not a great shock, unexpected but hardly shocking.
The team finished with a 30-7 record with 2 of the losses coming against the best team in the country that year, the Fighting Illini. 2 more losses came at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers, an eventual #2 seed in that years tourney and a very good basketball team.
Also a team with 5 future NBA players, including 4 first rounders, wasn't sneaking up on many teams. I won quite a few NCAA pools that year by picking M to win it all. Mills, Vaught, Robinson, Rice, Higgins, were all very highly sought after McDonald's AA type recruits.
I wouldn't go that far. Fisher deserved to be fired. I don't think, though, that he should be blamed for the collapse of the program after he left.
Have to think we'll pull a decent seed out when all is said and done. There are a number of teams I can come up with off the top of my head outside of this bubble group listed whose resumes aren't as good as Michigan's right now (Marquette, Tennessee, MSU, etc.). Factor in the opportunity to play the #1 team in the country along with all the teams we've played that are still padding their own resume (MSU, PSU, Clemson, Harvard, UTEP) and things could look really good come Sunday, especially considering all the nervous bubble watching we've all been doing the last few weeks.
the 8/9 seed. As much as it sounds ass backwards, I'd rather be a 10 or 11 seed because of the potential second round matchup. I don't see us jumping up to a 7, unless we win the BTT.
HAM
Hope the Buckeyes like it, cuz they're getting a full freaking serving of it in less than 12 hours
Let's serve them up some piping hot, fresh, halal HALOL
great to-be a Michigan Wolverine.
March 12th, 2011 at 10:48 AM ^
we are in now. purdue and wisconsin lost. If we can beat osu,the B10 is ours.GO BLUE!!!
March 12th, 2011 at 12:47 PM ^
Lunardi has updated his bracket.
A 10 seed facing UNLV in the first round. Southeast division, with the 2 seed in the region being Texas.
Conferences/Bid thieves still alive:
A10 (semis): Dayton, St Joseph's SEC (semis): Alabama (considered "out" by Lunardi) WAC (final): Boise StHow funny would it be if Boise won the tournament?
I picture football fans heads asploding all over Idaho.