PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Alabama	Mississippi St.	14.7
American	Army	3.3
Auburn	Texas A&M	6.9
Binghamton	Vermont	-7.0
Boston College	Louisville	9.1
Bradley	Illinois St.	13.7
Bucknell	Navy	-1.0
Central Florida	Houston	-8.6
Chattanooga	Wofford	5.6
Connecticut	Xavier	7.1
Creighton	St. John’s	8.3
Duquesne	Loyola (Chi)	8.0
Evansville	Belmont	-12.7
Florida	South Carolina	18.3
Furman	Samford	5.8
Gardner-Webb	USC Upstate	8.4
George Washington	Saint Joseph’s	3.5
Hartford	Stonehill College	-5.8
High Point	Campbell	0.4
Holy Cross	Lehigh	-2.4
Lafayette	Loyola (MD)	7.9
Maine	UMass Lowell	-5.9
Maryland	Wisconsin	5.5
Massachusetts	Richmond	-0.7
Mercer	East Tennessee St.	3.3
Minnesota	Indiana	-11.5
Nebraska	Northwestern	-1.3
New Hampshire	Albany	6.6
NJIT	UMBC	-4.4
Northern Iowa	Valparaiso	8.4
Pittsburgh	Wake Forest	3.2
Providence	Butler	8.9
Purdue Ft. Wayne	IUPUI	20.1
Rhode Island	Dayton	-8.8
San Diego St	Utah St.	5.0
St. Bonaventure	Fordham	3.4
Stanford	Chicago St.	16.7
Stephen F. Austin	UT-Rio Grande Valley	11.8
Temple	South Florida	5.2
Tennessee	Georgia	18.5
Texas Tech	West Virginia	1.2
UNC Asheville	Presbyterian	11.0
UNC Greensboro	VMI	15.9
UT Arlington	Cal Baptist	-4.9
VCU	George Mason	6.6
Western Carolina	The Citadel	6.3
Wichita St.	Tulane	0.0
Winthrop	Charleston Southern	3.3

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 22, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
California	Oregon St.	3.6
Cincinnati	Memphis	0.6
Colorado	Washington St.	4.6
Connecticut	Butler	14.4
Fairleigh Dickinson	Stonehill	5.0
Houston	Temple	21.3
Indiana	Michigan St.	5.5
Long Island	Central Connecticut St.	-6.8
Maine	Binghamton	2.3
Michigan	Minnesota	13.4
Mount St. Mary’s	Marist	4.1
Purdue	Maryland	9.1
Quinnipiac	Canisius	10.3
Rider	Manhattan	9.6
Saint Peter’s	Niagara	0.0
Siena	Fairfield	6.9
SMU	Wichita St.	0.1
St. Francis (NY)	Merrimack	0.5
UMass Lowell	Bryant	3.4
Vermont	NJIT	12.0
Wagner	Sacred Heart	4.7
Wofford	Furman	-3.3

Coming Soon: “The 2023 list of coaches ready for the big time.”

In the past, our list has included Eric Musselman, Nate Oats, Matt McMahon, Todd Golden, Chris Jans, T.J. Otzelberger, Wes Miller, Steve Forbes, Mike Young, and top assistants like Jon Scheyer and Tommy Lloyd. All of these guys are coaching at a big time program in 2023, and some have already developed their school into a major power. Who makes this year’s list? We’ll give you 20 guys that can turn your moribund Major College program around in short time.

PiRate Ratings Bracketology



Date	1/20/2023
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Purdue	Houston	Kansas	Alabama
2	UCLA	Tennessee	Kansas St.	Iowa St.
3	Texas	Arizona	Connecticut	Gonzaga
4	Virginia	Xavier	Marquette	Baylor
5	TCU	Auburn	Miami (Fla)	Rutgers
6	San Diego St.	Duke	Saint Mary’s	Providence
7	North Carolina St.	Arkansas	Illinois	Michigan St.
8	New Mexico	North Carolina	Missouri	Iowa
9	Indiana	Boise St.	Arizona St.	Creighton
10	Florida Atlantic	Clemson	Wisconsin	West Virginia
11	Charleston	Pittsburgh	Memphis	Maryland	Northwestern
12	Kent St.	Oral Roberts	Dayton	Ohio St.	Penn St.
13	Seattle	Marshall	Southern Illinois	Iona
14	Liberty	UC Santa Barbara	Cornell	Colgate
15	UMass Lowell	Samford	Youngstown St.	Eastern Washington
16	Longwood	SIU Edwardsville	Southern	Texas A&M-CC	Morgan St.	Fairleigh Dickinson

Last 4 Byes: Wisconsin, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Memphis

Last 4 In: Maryland, Northwestern, Ohio St., Penn St.

First 4 Out: Utah St., Oklahoma, Wake Forest, Texas A&M

Next 4 Out: Nevada, Central Florida, USC, Seton Hall

Note: The last 4 teams in the field this week are all Big Ten teams. These would be First Four teams playing in Dayton, but the NCAA Selection Committee will not put four Big Ten teams in this round.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Thursday, January 19, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Albany	Binghamton	1.5
Arizona	USC	8.0
Arizona St.	UCLA	-5.6
Arkansas St.	Louisiana	-8.8
Austin Peay	Bellarmine	1.3
Bryant	NJIT	11.0
Cal Poly	UC San Diego	3.1
Coastal Carolina	Appalachian St.	-0.9
Colorado	Washington	8.8
Delaware	William & Mary	5.8
Drexel	Hampton	15.9
Florida Gulf Coast	Jacksonville St.	10.3
Georgia Southern	Louisiana Monroe	7.2
Gonzaga	Loyola Marymount	15.5
Green Bay	Youngstown St.	-17.3
Hofstra	UNC Wilmington	3.6
Houston Christian	Incarnate Word	2.7
Idaho St.	Sacramento St.	-0.7
Illinois	Indiana	3.4
IUPUI	Oakland	-10.6
Jacksonville	Liberty	-5.3
Lamar	Texas A&M-CC	-11.7
Lindenwood	Southern Indiana	-2.9
Lipscomb	Eastern Kentucky	2.7
Little Rock	Tennessee Tech	-1.4
Long Beach St.	Cal St. Fullerton	2.9
Louisiana Tech	Western Kentucky	2.9
Maryland	Michigan	4.0
Memphis	Wichita St.	11.4
Michigan St.	Rutgers	-0.5
Middle Tennessee	Charlotte	0.2
Milwaukee	Robert Morris	5.1
Minnesota	Purdue	-13.6
Monmouth	Charleston	-18.6
New Orleans	Texas A&M-Commerce	-1.1
Nicholls St.	McNeese St.	9.0
North Carolina A&T	Towson	-4.4
North Dakota	UMKC	-3.1
North Dakota St.	Oral Roberts	-7.3
North Florida	Queens	-1.6
North Texas	Rice	10.9
Northern Arizona	Idaho	4.7
Northern Colorado	Eastern Washington	-3.4
Northern Kentucky	Cleveland St.	2.1
Old Dominion	Georgia St.	5.3
Pepperdine	Saint Mary’s	-11.3
Portland	San Diego	4.5
Sam Houston	Stephen F. Austin	8.2
San Francisco	Pacific	10.1
Santa Clara	BYU	1.7
Seattle	Tarleton St.	4.6
SIU Edwardsville	Morehead St.	9.6
South Dakota	Denver	3.5
South Dakota St.	Omaha	9.8
Southeast Louisiana	Northwestern St.	1.0
Southeast Missouri St.	UT Martin	4.7
Southern Miss.	South Alabama	6.2
Southern Utah	New Mexico St.	5.3
Stanford	Oregon St.	10.4
Stetson	Kennesaw St.	2.0
Stony Brook	Northeastern	0.0
Tennessee St.	Eastern Illinois	6.7
Texas St.	Marshall	-6.8
Troy	James Madison	-2.2
UC Davis	UC Riverside	1.6
UC Irvine	Hawaii	5.2
UC Santa Barbara	Cal St. Northridge	15.1
UNC Greensboro	The Citadel	13.8
UT Arlington	UT-Rio Grande Valley	4.1
Utah	Washington St.	3.5
UTEP	Florida Intl.	5.5
UTSA	Florida Atlantic	-16.2
Vermont	Maine	10.4
VMI	Mercer	-3.8
Weber St.	Portland St.	2.5
Wright St.	Purdue Ft. Wayne	0.3

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

Date	1/16/2023
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Kansas	Purdue	Houston	Alabama
2	UCLA	Tennessee	Texas	Connecticut
3	Gonzaga	Xavier	Arizona	Kansas St.
4	Virginia	Iowa St.	TCU	Miami (Fla)
5	Marquette	Baylor	Rutgers	Auburn
6	Arkansas	Duke	San Diego St.	Providence
7	Saint Mary’s	Illinois	North Carolina St.	North Carolina
8	New Mexico	Clemson	Missouri	Michigan St.
9	Florida Atlantic	Iowa	Ohio St.	Arizona St.
10	Wisconsin	Charleston	Indiana	Creighton
11	Memphis	Maryland	Pittsburgh	Boise St.	Penn St.
12	Kent St.	Dayton	Oral Roberts	Northwestern	West Virginia
13	Seattle	Marshall	Iona	Belmont
14	Liberty	UC-Irvine	Princeton	Colgate
15	Youngstown St.	Eastern Washington	Samford	SIU Edwardsville
16	Longwood	UMBC	Southern	Texas A&M-CC	Morgan St.	Fairleigh Dickinson

Last 4 Byes: Creighton, Memphis, Maryland, Pittsburgh

Last 4 In: Boise St., Penn St., Northwestern, West Virginia

First 4 Out: Nevada, Mississippi St., Oklahoma, Virginia Tech

Next 4 Out: Utah St., Wake Forest, Kentucky, USC

Note: The predictions made in PiRate Ratings Bracketology are our opinions on what we believe the NCAA Selection Committee will choose based on the criteria they have at their disposal.

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 15, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Canisius	Siena	-2.5
Connecticut	Saint John’s	13.2
East Carolina	South Florida	0.2
Iona	Rider	13.0
Iowa	Maryland	3.9
Michigan	Northwestern	2.8
Missouri St.	Indiana St.	0.8
Mount St. Mary’s	Quinnipiac	-4.3
Niagara	Marist	7.8
Rutgers	Ohio St.	3.6
Saint Peter’s	Fairfield	0.9
Temple	Memphis	-6.0
Xavier	Marquette	3.1

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 8, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Albany	UMass Lowell	-10.7
American	Boston	5.3
Arizona St.	Washington	8.6
Bryant	UMBC	5.9
Central Florida	SMU	12.1
Cincinnati	Houston	-10.2
Eastern Kentucky	Liberty	-9.1
Holy Cross	Loyola (MD)	2.0
Indiana	Northwestern	7.7
Lafayette	Bucknell	1.1
Maine	NJIT	5.8
Manhattan	Niagara	-3.3
Marist	Mount St. Mary’s	-2.0
Maryland	Ohio St.	-1.2
Navy	Lehigh	9.0
New Hampshire	Vermont	-6.5
Northern Kentucky	Detroit	2.9
Penn St.	Purdue	-5.3
Quinnipiac	Iona	-6.6
Rutgers	Iowa	6.7
Saint Peter’s	Canisius	2.2
Siena	Rider	4.2
South Florida	Wichita St.	-0.2
Wright St.	Oakland	6.2

PiRates Take On NCAA Tournament Expansion

There has been talk of expanding the NCAA Tournament from the current 68 teams up to potentially 90. We do not think that is a great option, but we do believe that expanding by four to 72 would be worthwhile. Enough new schools have been added to the ranks of Division I since the tournament expanded from 64 to 65 to 68.

We would alter how the tournament is seeded in a 72-team field. Because the new Division I teams are among the bottom of the now 363 teams in power ratings, the four new seeds should be bottom seeds. How about making the #15 and #16 seeds the bottom 16 automatic qualifiers in the Dance? That means there woud be eight, 15-seeds and eight, 16-seeds. All 15’s and 16’s would begin the tournament in a First 16 Round. The tournament could keep the Dayton site for half the games and maybe use Denver for the other half.

This would eliminate the First Four games for the bottom at-large teams, but there would now be more spots for the at-large.

This would also suffice in placing a power conference team that pulls off a bunch of upsets to win their conference tournament. A team that goes 10-21 in the regular season and then wins four games in four days to earn an automatic bid at 14-21 could now be placed in one of those 15-seeds as one of the weakest automatic qualifiers.

PiRate Ratings Bracketology

Date	1/6/2023
Seed	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team	Team
1	Kansas	Purdue	Houston	Arizona
2	Tennessee	Alabama	UCLA	Connecticut
3	Texas	Arkansas	Gonzaga	Virginia
4	Baylor	Xavier	Ohio St.	Duke
5	Iowa St.	Kansas St.	Indiana	Miami (Fla)
6	Wisconsin	TCU	San Diego St.	West Virginia
7	North Carolina	Marquette	Rutgers	Missouri
8	Kentucky	Providence	Virginia Tech	Auburn
9	New Mexico	Saint Mary’s	Illinois	Creighton
10	Memphis	Michigan St.	Utah	Florida Atlantic
11	Charleston	Maryland	Pittsburgh	North Carolina St.	Mississippi St.	Arizona St.
12	Iona	Kent St.	Dayton	Utah St.
13	Yale	Oral Roberts	Liberty	Grand Canyon
14	U Mass Lowell	Bradley	Georgia Southern	UC-Irvine
15	Furman	Colgate	Montana St.	Youngstown St.
16	SIU Edwardsville	Longwood	Grambling	Texas A&M CC	Norfolk St.	Fairleigh Dickinson

Last Four Byes: Memphis, Michigan St., Utah, Maryland

Last Four In: Pittsburgh, North Carolina St., Mississippi St., Arizona St.

First Four Out: Oklahoma St., Penn St., Texas Tech, LSU

Next Four Out: Northwestern, Clemson, Oklahoma, Wake Forest

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Sunday, January 1, 2023

Home	Visitor	Spread
Canisius	Mount St. Mary’s	0.2
Dartmouth	Cornell	-7.2
DePaul	Providence	-4.3
Evansville	Murray St.	-6.1
Fairfield	Siena	-2.5
Georgetown	Butler	-3.0
Iona	Saint Peter’s	17.3
Manhattan	Quinnipiac	-5.7
Michigan	Maryland	-2.0
Missouri St.	Drake	0.2
Northwestern	Ohio St.	-1.8
Penn St.	Iowa	1.5
SMU	Tulsa	6.8
Southern Illinois	Belmont	3.5
Temple	Cincinnati	-3.3
Tulane	Memphis	-5.1
UMBC	Vermont	-0.5
Valparaiso	Indiana St.	-7.0
Washington	UCLA	-11.4
Washington St.	USC	1.6

PiRate Ratings College Basketball–Thursday, December 29, 2022

Thursday, December 29, 2022
Home	Visitor	Spread
Bellarmine	Liberty	-6.5
Butler	Providence	1.8
Coastal Carolina	Louisiana	-1.5
Cal Poly	Cal St. Northridge	4.1
California	Utah	-10.6
Charleston	Hampton	19.0
Charlotte	Middle Tennessee	3.7
Cincinnati	Tulane	6.6
Cornell	Binghamton	14.8
Cal St. Fullerton	UC Santa Barbara	-3.6
Delaware	Hofstra	-0.9
Denver	UMKC	2.9
DePaul	Georgetown	5.2
Detroit	Green Bay	15.2
Drake	Valparaiso	15.4
Drexel	Elon	12.4
E. Illinois	Lindenwood	3.4
Fairleigh Dickinson	Merrimack	4.1
Furman	VMI	15.5
Georgia Southern	South Alabama	-3.1
Gardner Webb	Charleston Southern	10.3
Georgia St.	James Madison	-8.8
Grand Canyon	Cal Baptist	6.5
Howard	La Salle	0.2
Idaho St.	N. Arizona	-0.7
Illinois	Bethune Cookman	28.6
Indiana St.	Evansville	13.3
Louisiana Tech	UTSA	12.3
Long Beach St.	UC San Diego	9.4
Little Rock	UT Martin	-1.4
Long Island	Wagner	-7.2
Longwood	High Point	5.8
Marshall	Appalachian St.	10.3
Maryland	UMBC	19.4
Memphis	South Florida	16.0
Michigan	Central Michigan	20.3
Montana	Eastern Washington	3.3
Montana St.	Idaho	10.9
Murray St.	Southern Illinois	-0.5
Northern Kentucky	Wright St.	1.1
Omaha	Oral Roberts	-11.5
Nebraska	Iowa	-4.1
North Texas	Florida Atlantic	0.4
Northeastern	North Carolina A&T	3.9
Northwestern	Brown	16.0
Oakland	Milwaukee	-1.4
Ohio St.	Alabama A&M	27.4
Old Dominion	Arkansas St.	10.6
Pacific	BYU	-7.4
Penn St.	Delaware St.	30.8
Portland	Loyola Marymount	1.6
Presbyterian	Campbell	-2.8
Purdue	Florida A&M	34.1
Queens	Austin Peay	6.3
Robert Morris	Purdue Ft. Wayne	-2.8
South Dakota St.	Western Illinois	7.2
Sacred Heart	Stonehill	3.8
Saint Mary’s	San Diego	16.4
Santa Clara	San Francisco	0.7
USC Upstate	Winthrop	-1.9
Stephen F. Austin	Abilene Christian	3.0
SIU-Edwardsville	Tennessee Tech	10.0
Southern Indiana	Southeast Missouri St.	3.6
Southern Miss.	Troy	3.3
South Dakota	St. Thomas	-2.1
St. Francis PA	Central Connecticut	2.7
Stanford	Colorado	1.9
Tarleton St.	UT Arlington	7.5
Tennessee St.	Morehead St.	2.2
Texas St.	Louisiana Monroe	9.3
The Citadel	Chattanooga	-6.7
UAB	UTEP	15.8
UC Riverside	Cal St. Bakersfield	10.0
UNC Asheville	Radford	2.3
Utah Tech	UT Rio Grande Valley	9.4
Utah Valley	Sam Houston	-1.4
Western Carolina	UNC Greensboro	-3.9
Western Kentucky	Rice	5.5
Weber St.	Northern Colorado	2.9
Wofford	ETSU	8.0
Youngstown St.	Cleveland St.	7.0