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Projecting the Tournament: Jan. 28 edition
January 28, 2009 | By Benjamin Miraski
It is time to look at the NCAA tournament again, as projected by Joe Lunardi.
For those that might think I am making fun of the Bracket-master by doing this, that is not true, even when I have a 5- or 6-seed going to the Final Four. It is not like it has never happened.
More true is that I am looking at where the teams are seeded versus where they measure up in the computer rankings. It is a way at looking at how disparate two views of the same data can be.
For example, did I really think that West Virginia was a Final Four team last week? Well, why not? They are a great team. So what if they were seeded low. Bob Huggins has gotten more out of less more than any other coach that I know of. Maybe this was going to be the breakthrough year for Huggy-bear.
I believe this could give a lot of fans some insight into what will happen come March given what has already transpired.
And now to the Brackets:
One and Done:
Midwest: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Ohio State, Virginia Commonwealth, Northern Iowa, Siena, Robert Morris, St. Mary's, VMI
West: Weber State, Florida, Georgetown, Western Kentucky, Utah State, Jacksonville, Florida State, Long Beach State
South: Holy Cross, Alabama State, Miami, Michigan, TCU, Wisconsin, North Dakota State, Notre Dame, Cornell
East: Morgan State, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Buffalo, UNLV, Vermont, Dayton, Austin Peay
Two and Out:
Midwest: Villanova, Texas, Purdue, UCLA
West: Wake Forest, BYU, Butler, Minnesota
South: Missouri, Kentucky, Cal, Baylor
East: Davidson, Syracuse, Kansas, Tennessee
Sweet Sixteen Departures:
Midwest: West Virginia, Clemson
West: Illinois, Oklahoma
South: Gonzaga, Xavier
East: Arizona State, Michigan State
Not-So-Elite Eight:
Midwest: Louisville
West: Washington
South: Pittsburgh
East: Marquette
Final Four Matchups:
Duke vs. Memphis -- Winner: Duke
Connecticut vs. North Carolina -- Winner: North Carolina
National Champion: Duke
The MRI Rankings are copyright 2009 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski is a freelance reporter, edits and writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. He also is the Northwestern Wildcats Examiner for Examiner.com. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com
Posted January 28, 2009 11:07 AM
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