Bracket Gurus Breakfast Meeting

The Bubble Has Deflated

Good Morning PiRate Supporters.

This is the Captain writing this morning, as our sleepy Bracket Gurus try to wipe the sleep out of our eyes and begin perusing all the numbers.

One good thing about sleeping 3-4 hours a night for almost a fortnight is there isn’t much time to develop the junk that one must wipe out of his or her eyes.

If you have been following PiRate Ratings Bracketology prior to today, what you saw on this website was one person’s (moi) prediction as to what the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee would choose for the final bracket.

Beginning this morning, I step aside as sole Bracketologist to become one of multiple Bracket Gurus.  I have selected an excellent group of qualified experts to help interpret the criteria used by the Selection Committee to attempt to replicate what the actual Committee has been doing for the last five days.

Our Gurus include members of the sports media, a couple with former basketball coaching experience, a mathematics professor, a sports handicapper, and a basketball savant that can tell you exactly how many points Charlie Scott scored in the three games when North Carolina won the December 1967 Far West Classic.

Our Gurus have done an incredible job already this morning.  They have culled the field down to 69 teams.  Basically, three teams remain in consideration for the final two spots in the field.  Early this afternoon, we will reveal our 68 teams that we predict will make the field, and then following the Big Ten Championship Game (or earlier if the game is no longer in doubt), we will reveal our final Bracketology seeding.

Check back around 2PM Eastern Time today for our Final 68, and then sneak a peak here once the Michigan State-Michigan winner is known to see our final prediction.

 

Bracketnomics in Less Than 36 Hours

Once the field of 68 is announced, we begin perusing all the stats from all 68 teams.  We look at each school’s official athletic site to get their official cumulative box for the season, and then we add our own touches to help you select your brackets for your pools.

Our system is unique, and we have back-tested data that helps us isolate the contenders from the pretenders.  If you haven’t taken a look, here is the primer that will help you earn your online Bachelor of Madness Degree.

https://piratings.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/bracketnomics-2019/

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PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Friday, March 15, 2019

March 15, 2019
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Virginia	Gonzaga	North Carolina	Duke
2	Kentucky	Michigan St.	Tennessee	LSU
3	Michigan	Purdue	Houston	Texas Tech
4	Florida St.	Wisconsin	Kansas	Kansas St.
5	Mississippi St.	Virginia Tech	Marquette	Nevada
6	Buffalo	Villanova	Maryland	Auburn
7	Wofford	Cincinnati	Iowa St.	Louisville
8	VCU	Iowa	Central Florida	Washington
9	Syracuse	Ole Miss	Baylor	Seton Hall
10	Minnesota	Oklahoma	Ohio St.	Utah St.
11	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	TCU/Florida
12	St. John’s/Belmont	Saint Mary’s	Murray St.	New Mexico St.
13	Liberty	Vermont	UC-Irvine	Old Dominion
14	Montana	Northeastern	Northern Kentucky	Georgia St.
15	Yale	Bradley	Colgate	Gardner-Webb
16	Sam Houston St.	Prairie View	Iona/Fairleigh-Dickinson	North Dakota St./Norfolk St.

 

Last 4 Bye	Utah St.	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.
Last 4 In	TCU	Florida	St. John’s	Belmont

 

 

First 4 Out	Alabama	Clemson	Indiana	Furman
Next 4 Out	Nebraska	Texas	UNC Greensboro	Georgetown

 

Conference	Bids
ACC	8
Big Ten	8
SEC	7
Big 12	6
Big East	5
AAC	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
West Coast	2
Ohio Valley	2
One-Bid Leagues	22

 

Bid-Stealers Are Alive

There are numerous bid stealers alive in the Power Conference tournaments.

Memphis plays in the AAC Quarterfinals today where they host the tournament

Saint Louis, Dayton, and Davidson are still alive in the Atlantic 10

West Virginia is an upset of Kansas today away from making the Big 12 Finals

Xavier is in the Big East semifinals playing Villanova today

Nebraska is alive in the Big Ten and playing Wisconsin in today’s quarterfinals

Fresno St. and San Diego St.  both play in the Mountain West semifinals today

Oregon and Colorado look like game competitors in the Pac-12 semifinals today

South Carolina begins play in the SEC quarterfinals today, while Alabama must beat Kentucky to stay in the mix as one of the first teams out

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Thursday, March 14, 2019

March 14, 2019
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Virginia	Gonzaga	Kentucky	North Carolina
2	Duke	Michigan St.	Tennessee	LSU
3	Michigan	Texas Tech	Houston	Purdue
4	Florida St.	Wisconsin	Kansas	Kansas St.
5	Virginia Tech	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Nevada
6	Buffalo	Villanova	Marquette	Auburn
7	Wofford	Louisville	Cincinnati	Iowa St.
8	Baylor	VCU	Iowa	Ole Miss
9	Syracuse	Washington	Central Florida	Oklahoma
10	Minnesota	Seton Hall	TCU	Utah St.
11	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	Ohio St./St. John’s
12	Florida/Creighton	Saint Mary’s	Murray St.	New Mexico St.
13	Liberty	Vermont	UC-Irvine	Old Dominion
14	Montana	Northeastern	Northern Kentucky	Georgia St.
15	Yale	Bradley	Colgate	Gardner-Webb
16	Sam Houston St.	Prairie View	Iona/Fairleigh-Dickinson	North Dakota St./Norfolk St.

Last 4 Bye	TCU	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.
Last 4 In	Ohio St.	St. John’s	Clemson	Florida

 

First 4 Out	Creighton	Indiana	Georgetown	Texas
Next 4 Out	Alabama	Belmont	Nebraska	UNC Greensboro

 

Conference	Bids
ACC	8
Big Ten	8
Big 12	7
SEC	7
Big East	5
AAC	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
West Coast	2
One-Bid Leagues	23

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Wednesday, March 13, 2019

March 13, 2019
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Virginia	Gonzaga	Kentucky	North Carolina
2	Duke	Michigan St.	Tennessee	LSU
3	Michigan	Texas Tech	Houston	Purdue
4	Florida St.	Wisconsin	Kansas	Kansas St.
5	Virginia Tech	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Nevada
6	Buffalo	Villanova	Marquette	Auburn
7	Wofford	Cincinnati	Louisville	Iowa St.
8	Baylor	VCU	Iowa	Ole Miss
9	Syracuse	Washington	Central Florida	Oklahoma
10	Minnesota	Seton Hall	Utah St.	TCU
11	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	Ohio St./St. John’s
12	Florida/Clemson	Saint Mary’s	Murray St.	New Mexico St.
13	Liberty	Vermont	Old Dominion	UC-Irvine
14	Montana	Northeastern	Northern Kentucky	Georgia St.
15	Yale	Bradley	Bucknell	Gardner-Webb
16	Sam Houston St.	Prairie View	Iona/Fairleigh-Dickinson	North Dakota St./Norfolk St.

 

Last 4 Byes

TCU

Temple

Arizona St.

North Carolina St.

 

Last 4 In

Ohio St.

St. John’s

Clemson

Florida

 

First 4 Out

Creighton

Indiana

Georgetown

Texas

Next 4 Out

Alabama

Belmont

Nebraska

UNC Greensboro

 

Bids By Conference

Conference	Bids
ACC	9
Big Ten	8
Big 12	7
SEC	7
Big East	4
AAC	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
West Coast	2
One-Bid Leagues	23

 

Automatic Bids To Date

Team	Conf	W-L
Liberty	Atlantic Sun	28-6
Gardner-Webb	Big South	23-11
Murray St.	Ohio Valley	27-4
Bradley	Missouri Valley	20-14
Wofford	Southern	29-4
Iona	Metro Atlantic	17-15
Fairleigh-Dickinson	Northeast	20-13
Northern Kentucky	Horizon	26-8
Northeastern	Colonial	23-10
Saint Mary’s	West Coast	22-11
North Dakota St.	Summit	18-15

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Monday, March 11, 2019

March 11, 2019

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky	North Carolina
2	Duke	Michigan St.	Tennessee	LSU
3	Michigan	Texas Tech	Houston	Purdue
4	Florida St.	Wisconsin	Kansas	Kansas St.
5	Virginia Tech	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Nevada
6	Buffalo	Villanova	Marquette	Auburn
7	Wofford	Cincinnati	Louisville	Iowa St.
8	Baylor	VCU	Iowa	Ole Miss
9	Syracuse	Washington	Central Florida	Oklahoma
10	Minnesota	Seton Hall	Utah St.	TCU
11	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	St. John’s
12	Ohio St./Clemson	Florida/Creighton	Murray St.	New Mexico St.
13	Liberty	Vermont	Hofstra	Old Dominion
14	UC-Irvine	Montana	Yale	Georgia St.
15	Bradley	Bucknell	Sam Houston St.	Wright St.
16	Omaha	Gardner-Webb	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Iona/Prairie View

 

 

 

Last 4 Bye	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.	St. John’s
Last 4 In	Ohio St.	Clemson	Florida	Creighton

 

 

First 4 Out	Indiana	Georgetown	Texas	Alabama
Next 4 Out	UNC Greensboro	Belmont	Nebraska	Saint Mary’s

 

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	9
Big Ten	8
Big 12	7
SEC	7
Big East	5
AAC	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
One-Bid Leagues	24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Sunday, March 10, 2019

March 10, 2019
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky	North Carolina
2	Duke	Michigan St.	Tennessee	LSU
3	Purdue	Houston	Texas Tech	Michigan
4	Florida St.	Kansas	Kansas St.	Wisconsin
5	Virginia Tech	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Nevada
6	Buffalo	Cincinnati	Villanova	Marquestte
7	Wofford	Auburn	Louisville	Iowa
8	Baylor	Virginia Commonwealth	Iowa St.	Ole Miss
9	Syracuse	Washington	Central Florida	Oklahoma
10	Minnesota	Seton Hall	Utah St.	TCU
11	Ohio St.	Temple	Arizona St.	North Carolina St.
12	St. John’s/Clemson	Florida/Creighton	Lipscomb	Murray St.
13	New Mexico St.	Vermont	Hofstra	Old Dominion
14	UC-irvine	Montana	Yale	Georgia St.
15	Bradley	Bucknell	Radford	Wright St.
16	Omaha	Sam Houston St.	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Iona/Prairie View

Teams In Red Have Won Automatic Bids

 

Last 4 Byes

Ohio St.

Temple

Arizona St.

North Carolina St.

 

Last 4 In–Headed to First Four in Dayton

St. John’s

Florida

Clemson

Creighton

 

First Four Out

Georgetown

Furman

Indiana

Belmont

 

Next Four Out

UNC Greensboro

Texas

Nebraska

Saint Mary’s

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	9
Big Ten	8
Big 12	7
SEC	7
Big East	5
AAC	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
One-Bid Leagues	24

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Friday, March 8, 2019

March 8, 2019
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Gonzaga	Duke	Virginia	Kentucky
2	Tennessee	Michigan	North Carolina	Michigan St.
3	LSU	Houston	Purdue	Texas Tech
4	Florida St.	Kansas	Wisconsin	Kansas St.
5	Marquette	Virginia Tech	Mississippi St.	Maryland
6	Villanova	Nevada	Iowa St.	Cincinnati
7	Buffalo	Louisville	Wofford	Auburn
8	Baylor	Syracuse	Iowa	Washington
9	Ole Miss	Central Florida	Oklahoma	St. John’s
10	Virginia Commonwealth	Florida	Minnesota	Ohio St.
11	Texas	Utah St.	Seton Hall	Temple
12	North Carolina St./TCU	Arizona St./Alabama	Belmont	Lipscomb
13	New Mexico St.	Old Dominion	Vermont	Hofstra
14	UC-irvine	Yale	South Dakota St.	Montana
15	Texas St.	Bucknell	Drake	Wright St.
16	Campbell	Sam Houston St.	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Iona/Texas Southern
Last 4 In	North Carolina St.	Arizona St.	TCU	Alabama
Last 4 Bye	Texas	Utah St.	Seton Hall	Temple
First 4 Out	Clemson	Indiana	Furman	Georgetown
Next 4 Out	Murray St.	Nebraska	UNC Greensboro	Saint Mary’s
		Bids By Conference	Bids
		ACC	8
		Big Ten	8
		Big 12	8
		SEC	8
		AAC	4
		Big East	4
		MWC	2
		Pac-12	2
		One-Bid Leagues	24

 

*** Bracketnomics 2019 Is 10 days away! ***

The Pirates Have Gathered in the Crow’s Nest to see what we can see, and we are beginning to compile the information that will go into our annual Bracketnomics Report on Monday, March 18.

Please note that our Bracketnomics change a little or a lot every year.  For some reason, readers here have been linking past Bracketnomics reports for others to read, and while we appreciate this, please note that the 2015 and 2014 reports are not the same as our current report.

If you are looking at an archived Bracketnomics report, you are not up to date with our latest research.  Make sure you read the 2019 version when it comes out.

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Thursday, March 7, 2019

March 7, 2019

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Duke	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky
2	Tennessee	Michigan	North Carolina	Michigan St.
3	Houston	LSU	Purdue	Texas Tech
4	Kansas	Wisconsin	Florida St.	Kansas St.
5	Marquette	Virginia Tech	Mississippi St.	Maryland
6	Iowa St.	Nevada	Cincinnati	Villanova
7	Buffalo	Louisville	Wofford	Auburn
8	Iowa	Baylor	Syracuse	Washington
9	Ole Miss	Virginia Commonwealth	Oklahoma	St. John’s
10	Central Florida	Florida	Minnesota	Ohio St.
11	Texas	TCU	Utah St.	Seton Hall
12	North Carolina St./Temple	Arizona St./Alabama	Belmont	Lipscomb
13	New Mexico St.	Old Dominion	Vermont	Hofstra
14	UC-irvine	Yale	South Dakota St.	Montana
15	Texas St.	Colgate	Drake	Wright St.
16	Campbell	Sam Houston St.	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Iona/Texas Southern

 

Last 4 In

North Carolina St.

Arizona St.

Alabama

Temple

 

Last 4 Bye

Texas

TCU

Utah St.

Seton Hall

 

First 4 Out

Clemson

Indiana

Furman

Georgetown

 

Next 4 Out

Murray St.

Nebraska

UNC Greensboro

Saint Mary’s

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	8
Big Ten	8
Big 12	8
SEC	8
AAC	4
Big East	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
One-Bid Leagues	24

PiRate Ratings College Basketball For Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Wednesday’s PiRate Ratings Spreads

Home	Rating	HCA	Visitor	Rating	Spread
Baylor	110.8	3.0	Oklahoma St.	104.2	9.6
Charlotte	92.6	2.5	Rice	95.5	-0.4
Creighton	109.3	3.0	Providence	105.5	6.8
Davidson	105.7	3.0	St. Bonaventure	102.7	6.0
Dayton	107.0	3.0	La Salle	97.0	13.0
DePaul	103.7	3.0	Georgetown	106.4	0.3
Detroit	95.5	1.0	Northern Kentucky	104.3	-7.8
Eastern Illinois	91.8	0.0	UT Martin	92.1	-0.3
Fairleigh Dickinson	96.2	2.5	Wagner	92.4	6.3
Florida	111.1	3.0	LSU	114.3	-0.2
Florida Atlantic	100.8	2.5	Louisiana Tech	101.7	1.6
Fordham	95.0	2.5	George Washington	93.1	4.4
Georgia	104.6	3.0	Missouri	105.1	2.5
Houston Baptist	93.3	2.5	Incarnate Word	85.4	10.4
Long Beach St.	96.0	2.5	UC Riverside	90.4	8.1
Marshall	98.9	3.0	Florida Int’l.	97.8	4.1
Massachusetts	96.2	2.5	Richmond	98.0	0.7
McNeese St.	89.8	2.5	Texas A&M CC	93.9	-1.6
Morehead St.	95.0	0.0	SIU Edwardsville	88.3	6.7
New Mexico	99.0	3.0	Boise St.	101.2	0.8
Nicholls St.	90.4	2.5	Northwestern St.	87.3	5.6
North Carolina St.	111.8	3.0	Georgia Tech	103.6	11.2
Northwestern	106.0	2.5	Ohio St.	110.5	-2.0
Notre Dame	105.2	3.0	Clemson	111.6	-3.4
Oakland	98.6	2.5	Youngstown St.	94.3	6.8
Old Dominion	104.3	3.0	Southern Miss.	103.0	4.3
Robert Morris	94.3	2.5	St. Francis (Bklyn)	93.7	3.1
Rutgers	106.6	2.5	Penn St.	110.3	-1.2
Sacred Heart	95.9	2.5	Long Island	94.1	4.3
Saint Louis	102.6	3.0	Duquesne	99.9	5.7
Sam Houston St.	100.1	3.0	Central Arkansas	90.5	12.6
San Diego St.	102.7	3.0	Fresno St.	106.5	-0.8
San Jose St.	86.3	3.0	Wyoming	90.0	-0.7
Seton Hall	107.5	3.0	Marquette	112.8	-2.3
Southeastern Louisiana	95.5	2.5	New Orleans	94.9	3.1
St. Francis (PA)	95.1	3.0	Bryant	89.4	8.7
Tulane	91.9	2.5	South Florida	104.2	-9.8
UTEP	93.0	3.0	Middle Tennessee	94.8	1.2
Vanderbilt	102.5	2.5	Arkansas	107.8	-2.8
Washington	110.1	3.0	Oregon St.	105.4	7.7
Washington St.	97.6	3.0	Oregon	107.8	-7.2
West Virginia	103.4	3.0	Iowa St.	114.7	-8.3
Western Kentucky	103.1	3.0	UTSA	102.0	4.1

 

Conference Tournaments Update

Big South Conference

First Round–Tuesday, March 5 (at Higher Seeded Teams)

Presbyterian	106	UNC-Asheville	59
Charleston Sou.	71	USC Upstate	52
Hampton	77	Longwood	71

 

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 7 (at Campbell)
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
2	Radford (20-10)	7	Presbyterian (18-14)
3	Winthrop (18-11)	6	Charleston Southern (16-14)
1	Campbell (19-11)	8	Hampton (15-15)
4	Gardner-Webb (20-11)	5	High Point (16-14)

 

Horizon League (Motor City Madness)

Quarterfinals–Tuesday, March 5 (at Higher Seed)

Wright St.	71	IUPUI	56
Green Bay	82	Illinois-Chicago	77

 

Quarterfinals–Wednesday, March 6 (at Higher Seed)

Seed	Home Team	Seed	Visitors
3	Oakland (15-16)	6	Youngstown St. (12-19)
2	Northern Kentucky (23-8)	7	Detroit (11-19)

 

Northeast Conference

All games at home floor of higher seeds

Quarterfinals–Wednesday, March 6
Seed	Home	Seed	Visitor
1	St. Francis (PA) (16-13)	8	Bryant (10-19)
2	Fairleigh-Dickinson (17-13)	7	Wagner (13-16)
3	Sacred Heart (15-16)	6	Long Island (15-15)
4	Robert Morris (16-15)	5	St. Francis (Bklyn) (17-14)

 

Ohio Valley Conference

Site: Ford Center, Evansville, IN

First Round–Wednesday, March 6
Seed	Team	Seed	Team
5	Morehead St. (12-19)	8	SIU Edwardsville (10-20)
6	Eastern Illinois (14-17)	7	UT-Martin (11-18)

 

Patriot League

All games at home floor of higher seeds

Boston U	71	Loyola (MD)	63
Holy Cross	79	Lafayette	74

 

Quarterfinals–Thursday, March 7
Seed	Home	Seed	Visitor
1	Colgate (21-10)	8	Boston U (15-17)
2	Bucknell (19-10)	10	Holy Cross (16-16)
3	Lehigh (19-10)	6	Army (13-18)
4	American (15-14)	5	Navy (11-18)

 

Updated Bracketology Later Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PiRate Ratings Bracketology For Monday, March 4, 2019

March 4, 2019

Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Duke	Gonzaga	Virginia	Kentucky
2	Tennessee	Michigan	North Carolina	Michigan St.
3	Houston	LSU	Purdue	Texas Tech
4	Kansas	Marquette	Wisconsin	Florida St.
5	Kansas St.	Virginia Tech	Nevada	Iowa St.
6	Maryland	Mississippi St.	Cincinnati	Villanova
7	Buffalo	Louisville	Baylor	Iowa
8	Auburn	Wofford	Syracuse	Washington
9	Ole Miss	Virginia Commonwealth	Florida	St. John’s
10	TCU	Texas	Central Florida	Ohio St.
11	Oklahoma	Alabama	Minnesota	Seton Hall
12	North Carolina St./Temple	Arizona St./Utah St.	Belmont	Lipscomb
13	New Mexico St.	Old Dominion	Vermont	Hofstra
14	UC-irvine	Yale	South Dakota St.	Texas St.
15	Montana	Colgate	Drake	Wright St.
16	Campbell	Sam Houston St.	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Siena/Texas Southern
Last 4 In	North Carolina St.	Arizona St.	Utah St.	Temple
Last 4 Bye	Oklahoma	Alabama	Minnesota	Seton Hall
First 4 Out	Clemson	Indiana	Georgetown	Furman
Next 4 Out	Murray St.	Nebraska	Xavier	Saint Mary’s

 

Bids By Conference	Bids
ACC	8
Big Ten	8
Big 12	8
SEC	8
AAC	4
Big East	4
MWC	2
Pac-12	2
One-Bid Leagues	24