PiRate Ratings FINAL Bracketology For 2019

Sunday, March 17, 2019

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

 

Last Four Byes

Virginia Commonwealth

Florida

Oklahoma

Ohio St.

 

Last Four In

Temple

St. John’s

TCU

Arizona St.

 

First Four Out

North Carolina St.

Belmont

UNC Greensboro

Furman

 

Next Four Out

Indiana

Alabama

Clemson

Texas

 

Bids By Conference

Conference	Bids
Big Ten	8
ACC	7
SEC	7
Big 12	7
Big East	4
AAC	4
Pac-12	3
MWC	2
West Coast	2
Atlantic 10	2
One-Bid Leagues	22

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Bracket Gurus 68 Team Field

The Gurus Have Reached A Verdict

In New York, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee by now has agreed on 68 teams and only a little moving in the seed lines is yet to come.  After last night’s games, especially after the Oregon win over Washington in the Pac-12 Championship Game, it basically came down to about 70 teams competing for 68 spots.

The Gurus met via conference this morning and quickly eliminated all but four of the teams on the Bubble for three spots in the field.  By the end of the coffee talk, we had agreed to eliminate one team, leaving three teams for the final two spots.  There’s the rub; at this point, we had a hung jury.

In the Committee room, they break for ice cream at this point.  The Bracket Gurus share something in common with each other but totally opposite of the Committee.  All 12 Gurus are into the Keto-Paleo-Bulletproof way of life.  We not only didn’t break for ice cream, none of us consumed more than our upgraded coffee.

Unfortunately, it was an early Sunday morning funeral that broke up the meeting and allowed the Gurus to step away from the numbers, which was ironic to the max.  The dearly departed friend of the Captain had been a certified public accountant as well as a sports fanatic.

The Gurus reconvened via cyberspace while consuming mass quantities of healthy fat and good quality animal protein (sorry Vegan friends).  Once satiated, the 12 Gurus realized that in all but one city where we reside, it is too beautiful to be indoors.  So, we quickly agreed on that 68th team as well as which team is sadly number 69.

To borrow from the great Jim Nantz, “Friends,” here are the 68 teams we have selected to represent the NCAA Tournament Field.  They are presented in alphabetical order.  The seeding will come in our final installment to be published as we have a Big Ten Tournament Champion.  If the game is a blowout, the seeding will appear before the conclusion of the game.  If the game is close, then expect the seeding to be on this site within 5 minutes of the conclusion of the game.  It will be marked as our “Final Selection.”

The following 68 teams as voted 12-0 by our gurus are:

(3 One-Bid Tournaments to be decided today)

Abilene Christian

Arizona St.

Atlantic 10:  Winner of St. Bonaventure vs. Saint Louis

Auburn

Baylor

Bradley

Buffalo

Cincinnati

Colgate

Duke

Fairleigh-Dickinson

Florida

Florida St.

Gardner-Webb

Gonzaga

Houston

Iona

Iowa

Iowa St.

Ivy: Winner of Harvard vs. Yale

Kansas

Kansas St.

Kentucky

Liberty

Louisville

LSU

Marquette

Maryland

Michigan

Michigan St.

Minnesota

Mississippi St.

Montana

Murray St.

North Carolina Central

Nevada

New Mexico St.

North Carolina

North Dakota St.

Northeastern

Northern Kentucky

Ohio St.

Oklahoma

Old Dominion

Ole Miss

Oregon

Prairie View A&M

Purdue

Saint Mary’s

Seton Hall

St. John’s

Sun Belt: Winner of Georgia State vs. Texas-Arlington

Syracuse

TCU

Temple

Tennessee

Texas Tech

UC-Irvine

UCF

Utah St.

VCU

Vermont

Villanova

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Washington

Wisconsin

Wofford

 

It came down to Arizona State versus North Carolina State.  The Sun Devils won out due to a better strength of schedule and better results in the 1st and 2nd Quadrant.

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/

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 Saturday, March 9, 2019

March 9, 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	Virginia Tech	Marquette	Maryland	Mississippi St.
6	Villanova	Nevada	Buffalo	Cincinnati
7	Iowa St.	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	South Dakota St.	Montana	Drake
15	Yale	Texas St.	Bucknell	Wright St.
16	Radford	Sam Houston St.	Norfolk St./St. Francis (PA)	Iona/Texas Southern

 

Last 4 Byes

Texas

Utah St.

Seton Hall

Temple

 

Last 4 In

North Carolina St.

Arizona St.

TCU

Alabama

 

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

 

Potential Bid Stealer Tonight

Belmont plays Murray State in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship Game tonight, and the winner will receive the first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.  This should be a must-watch game for you if you go mad over March Madness.

Both teams enter this game sporting 26-4 records, and both teams have a star player that will make this game worth watching.  Murray’s Ja Morant is an NBA Lottery Pick.  The 6 foot 3 inch sophomore point guard has moved ahead of the injured Darius Garland as the top point guard on the draft board.  Morant averages 24.2 points per game with a John Stockton-like 10.3 assists per game.  He doesn’t just jack up a ton of shots every night either; he takes sensible shots rarely off-balance, and he can put a team on his back and win in the postseason, as last night’s nip and tuck semifinal game with Jacksonville State proved.  The Gamecocks made a furious second half comeback to take the lead late in the game, before Morant took over and put JSU away with a key three-point play the old-fashioned way.  He then supplied enough tight defense to force JSU’s last chance shot to be a low-percentage one.

Belmont is led by their swingman guard/forward.  Dylan Windler is a multi-tooled 6 foot 8 inch senior that has continued to improve during his four year stay in Nashville.  Windler put  up Elgin Baylor type numbers last night in Belmont’s semifinal win over Austin Peay.  The Governors actually led this game for a good part of the first half, but Windler was on fire while also being a beast on the boards.  When is the last time, a wing player scored 32 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in a Division 1 game?  Might it have been the Hall of Famer from Seattle University that starred for the Lakers for a dozen years?  Windler averages 21.5 points and 10.7 rebounds per game for Belmont.

Magic Johnson has been front and center at this tournament, and when he saw Windler play last night, he no doubt thought about his former rival with Indiana State and the Boston Celtics, as Windler drained eight three-pointers.  Windler, by the way, hails from the Sycamore State.  He projects as a D-League prospect at the present time, but he could work his way into a second-round selection with a couple more excellent outings on the national stage.

Which brings us to this:  Obviously, one of these two stars will be sad tonight after the other flashes a big smile knowing he is headed to the Big Dance.  Is there a chance that the loser might steal an at-large bid?

Belmont must be given some consideration if the Bruins lose a close game tonight.  At 26-4, they are currently sitting at #41 in the Net Ratings.  The Bruins are 13-3 away from the Curb Events Center, and they have two wins over rival Lipscomb plus a win at UCLA.  Among their four losses is a game at Purdue, where Belmont was in the game most of the day.  Purely mechanical, this Belmont team is probably better than Bubble teams like Arizona State, Alabama, Clemson, and TCU.  If Lipscomb holds off Liberty tomorrow in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship; if Purdue wins the Big Ten Conference Tournament; and if UCLA advances to the Semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament, Belmont’s resume might be good enough to sneak into the Dance with a trip to Dayton in the First Four.

 

 

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 Wednesday, March 6, 2019

March 6, 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	Mississippi St.	Iowa St.
6	Maryland	Nevada	Cincinnati	Villanova
7	Buffalo	Louisville	Baylor	Auburn
8	Iowa	Wofford	Syracuse	Washington
9	Ole Miss	Virginia Commonwealth	Florida	St. John’s
10	Central Florida	Oklahoma	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	Georgetown	Furman
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