For those curious, here's what the bracket looks like from the S-curve. Now the S-curve has to be deviated from occasionally to ensure conference teams don't meet before the Elite Eight, but it generally provides a pretty good feel for where the committee ranks all the teams. It also gives you a good feel for who the last at-large teams were.
Some of the surprises include Duke ahead of both Texas and Tennessee, the latter of which had the best SOS in the country and second-highest RPI of any team in the last 15 years. Tennessee was 11-3 against the RPI Top 50, while Duke was 7-4. Georgetown, a team which counts American as its best RPI non-conference win and which was blown out at Memphis, was also placed well-ahead of Tennessee. Meanwhile, Kansas got its first Top 25 RPI win of the season TODAY. I guess last impressions are quite important to the committee. Another interesting development? Memphis, the second overall seed, might be forced to play basically a road game in Houston against Texas in the regional final. This will be similar to last year, when the Tigers had to face about 30,000 Texas A&M fans in the Sweet 16 in San Antonio.
For other seeding surprises, I'm including Lunardi's final bracket projections in parentheses next to each school. Lunardi got 29 of the 65 seeds correct. The biggest differences (more than 2 seedings) include Oregon, Miami and Indiana...
1 North Carolina (1)
Memphis (1)
UCLA (1)
Kansas (1)
2 Georgetown (2)
Duke (3)
Texas (2)
Tennessee (2)
3 Louisville (4)
Stanford (3)
Wisconsin (2)
Xavier (3)
4 Connecticut (5)
Vanderbilt (6)
Pittsburgh (3)
Washington St (6)
5 Notre Dame (4)
Michigan St (5)
Clemson (4)
Drake (4)
6 Purdue (6)
USC (7)
Marquette (6)
Oklahoma (7)
7 Butler (5)
Miami-FL (10)
Gonzaga (8)
West Virginia (8)
8 BYU (8)
UNLV (8)
Mississippi St (9)
Indiana (5)
9 Arkansas (7)
Oregon (12)
Kent St (9)
Texas A&M (7)
10 Arizona (12)
Davidson (9)
St. Mary's (10)
South Alabama (10)
11 St. Joseph's (11)
Kentucky (10)
Kansas St (9)
Baylor (12)
12 Western Kentucky (11)
Villanova (11)
Temple (11)
George Mason (13)
13 Winthrop (14)
Oral Roberts (13)
Siena (13)
San Diego (14)
14 Georgia (12)
Cal St.-Fullerton (14)
Cornell (13)
Boise St (14)
15 American (16)
Austin Peay (15)
UMBC (15)
Belmont (15)
16 Miss Valley St (16)
Portland St (15)
UT-Arlington (16)
Mt St Mary's/Coppin St (16)
Some of the surprises include Duke ahead of both Texas and Tennessee, the latter of which had the best SOS in the country and second-highest RPI of any team in the last 15 years. Tennessee was 11-3 against the RPI Top 50, while Duke was 7-4. Georgetown, a team which counts American as its best RPI non-conference win and which was blown out at Memphis, was also placed well-ahead of Tennessee. Meanwhile, Kansas got its first Top 25 RPI win of the season TODAY. I guess last impressions are quite important to the committee. Another interesting development? Memphis, the second overall seed, might be forced to play basically a road game in Houston against Texas in the regional final. This will be similar to last year, when the Tigers had to face about 30,000 Texas A&M fans in the Sweet 16 in San Antonio.
For other seeding surprises, I'm including Lunardi's final bracket projections in parentheses next to each school. Lunardi got 29 of the 65 seeds correct. The biggest differences (more than 2 seedings) include Oregon, Miami and Indiana...
1 North Carolina (1)
Memphis (1)
UCLA (1)
Kansas (1)
2 Georgetown (2)
Duke (3)
Texas (2)
Tennessee (2)
3 Louisville (4)
Stanford (3)
Wisconsin (2)
Xavier (3)
4 Connecticut (5)
Vanderbilt (6)
Pittsburgh (3)
Washington St (6)
5 Notre Dame (4)
Michigan St (5)
Clemson (4)
Drake (4)
6 Purdue (6)
USC (7)
Marquette (6)
Oklahoma (7)
7 Butler (5)
Miami-FL (10)
Gonzaga (8)
West Virginia (8)
8 BYU (8)
UNLV (8)
Mississippi St (9)
Indiana (5)
9 Arkansas (7)
Oregon (12)
Kent St (9)
Texas A&M (7)
10 Arizona (12)
Davidson (9)
St. Mary's (10)
South Alabama (10)
11 St. Joseph's (11)
Kentucky (10)
Kansas St (9)
Baylor (12)
12 Western Kentucky (11)
Villanova (11)
Temple (11)
George Mason (13)
13 Winthrop (14)
Oral Roberts (13)
Siena (13)
San Diego (14)
14 Georgia (12)
Cal St.-Fullerton (14)
Cornell (13)
Boise St (14)
15 American (16)
Austin Peay (15)
UMBC (15)
Belmont (15)
16 Miss Valley St (16)
Portland St (15)
UT-Arlington (16)
Mt St Mary's/Coppin St (16)
