West Virginia On the Bubble in NCAA Tournament Bracketology
The West Virginia Mountaineers are now on the March Madness bubble after a four-game losing streak in the latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology published by ESPN on Friday.
The Big 12 — a league in which nine teams are among the Top 10 teams in remaining strength of schedule — has eight teams in the field, but the Mountaineers are the one team that is now on bubble watch after falling to Oklahoma on Wednesday.
The Mountaineers, based on Joe Lunardi’s projection, would be the 65th team in the field out of 68, joining San Diego State, North Carolina and Oregon as the last four in the tournament. That also means the Mountaineers would play in a First Four game if the tournament started today.
The Mountaineers face Arkansas Saturday in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
For the third straight bracket, the Big 12 remained the conference with the most bids in the Tournament, one ahead of the Big Ten and the Big East, which each had seven. The SEC, which will play the Big 12 in the Big 12-SEC Challenge this weekend, had six bids.
Other takeaways:
Moving up: Kansas up to a No. 1 seed after its double-overtime win over Texas Tech. Oklahoma also moved up a seed and Lunardi created an insane matchup where Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser would face his old school, Loyola Chicago, in the first round.
Moving down: Texas Tech was the only school to move down one seed, to a No. 4, after falling to Kansas.
Holding steady: Baylor remained a No. 1 seed, while Texas, Iowa State and TCU all held steady at their previous seeding.
How the bracket looks for the Big 12 as of now:
Midwest Region (Chicago)
No. 4 Texas Tech vs. No. 13 San Diego State
No. 7 Texas vs. No. 10 Davidson
East Region (Philadelphia)
No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 16 Longwood
No. 7 Iowa State vs. No. 10 Boise State
West Region (San Francisco)
No. 9 Oklahoma vs. No. 8 Loyola Chicago
No. 11 TCU vs. No. 6 Xavier
South Region (San Antonio)
No. 1 Baylor vs. No. 16 Colgate
No. 12 West Virginia/San Diego State winner vs. No. 5 LSU
Future Big 12 members
West Region (San Francisco)
No. 3 Houston vs. No. 14 Seattle
South Region (San Antonio)
No. 8 BYU vs. No. 9 Miami (OH)
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
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