Joe Lunardi’s Latest Bracketology Moves Kansas into Midwest, Texas Tech as Last of ‘Next Four Out’
There’s been a somewhat subtle major change in Joe Lunardi’s latest set of Bracketology. After being on the 1-line for weeks, the ESPN expert now has the Kansas Jayhawks as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest.
And just why is that so significant? The Midwest this season is located in Kansas City, just 30 minutes or so from the Jayhawks’ campus in Lawrence.
Lunardi has previously had Kansas pegged as the No. 1 seed in the West Region, which is hosted in Las Vegas. Houston was set to be the top-seeded team in Kansas City. But the two have now flipped, as Kansas has jumped to No. 2 overall and Houston fallen to No. 3 in Lunardi’s rankings.
Meanwhile, there are some other notables around the Big 12 Conference. Despite losing 67-63 to those Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse, the Texas Tech Red Raiders remain as the final team on the list of the ‘Next Four Out’ tier. The Red Raiders would have to jump several teams, but they still have a puncher’s chance, with one game left in the regular season and then the Big 12 Tournament.
Oklahoma State also stayed pat in this latest projection. Most recently losing 74-68 to Baylor on Monday night, the Cowboys are the second team out of the field and could really do themselves a favor by beating Texas Tech in the final game of the regular season.
West Virginia is down a spot to No. 41, but is still hanging on to one of the last four byes. Unless disaster strikes, the Mountaineers appear to be in good shape after their 72-69 victory in Ames and season sweep of Iowa State the other night.
Speaking of Iowa State, it’s still among the list of teams that are clearly safe to be a part of the NCAA Tournament field. The others include Baylor, obviously Kansas, Kansas State, TCU and Texas.
