February 26, 2009 by Ryan Pohle

Updated Weekly Every Thursday

Based on Games Played Through Wednesday, February 25th.

1 Seeds

UNC, UConn, Pittsburgh, Memphis

2 Seeds

Duke, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan St.

3 Seeds

Louisville, Kansas, Arizona St., Villanova

4 Seeds

Clemson, Wake Forest, Purdue, Washington

5 Seeds

Marquette, West Virginia, Illinois, Xavier

6 Seeds

Utah, UCLA, Gonzaga, LSU

7 Seeds

BYU, Texas, Butler, Syracuse

8 Seeds

California, Utah St., Wisconsin, Arizona

9 Seeds

Florida St., Tennessee, Creighton, Ohio St.

10 Seeds

Florida, Kentucky, Temple, Miami Fl.

11 Seeds

Oklahoma St., Minnesota, UAB, Siena

12 Seeds

Dayton, South Carolina, UNLV, Texas A&M

13 Seeds

Davidson, George Mason, North Dakota St., Miami Oh.

14 Seeds

Vermont, American, Western Kentucky, Cornell

15 Seeds

Weber St., Stephen F. Austin, Belmont, Mount St. Mary’s

16 Seeds

Tennessee-Martin, Morgan St., Cal St. Fullerton Play-in Game: Radford vs. Alabama St.

Last Four In:

Dayton, South Carolina, UNLV, Texas A&M

First Four Out:

USC, Boston College, Michigan, San Diego St.

Multiple Conference Bids

Big East – 8,  ACC – 6, Big 12 – 6, Big Ten – 6, Pac 10 – 5, SEC – 4, A10 – 3, Mountain West – 3, Conference USA – 2.

Thoughts

Xavier – Xavier stays put as a five seed in this week’s edition, although if they had won @ Charlotte they would’ve probably bumped up to a 4 seed.  Xavier will be favored in its final three regular season games, but it’s likely that they’ll drop one of those games.

Dayton – Dayton played an excellent game last night nearly upsetting URI on the road, but it still goes down as a loss.  They have now dropped two straight and three of their last five.  The home game on Saturday against Temple could end up being a must win game for them, believe it or not.

Temple – Temple continues to gain love as they are now the 3rd team out in the bracket matrix (although I’ve had them in for a couple months now).  The Owls have won five straight and a win @ Temple would probably guarantee them a spot in the dance if they didn’t slip up anywhere else.

Texas A&M – Texas A&M joins as a newcomer this week.  They don’t seem to be in a ton of other people’s brackets just yet, but why not?  They’ve won three straight, have conference wins over Texas and Oklahoma St., and also beat Arizona and LSU in their non conference slate.

Missouri – I’ve had some comments about me having Missouri pretty high as a #2 seed.  Well, this team is sitting at 24-4 after winning seven straight games so why not?  Assuming they win one of their next two games (@ Kansas, vs. Oklahoma) a two seems pretty likely for them.

Penn St. – I must admit that I’m pretty surprised that over 80% of bracketologists have this team in their bracket.  Even if they do win two of their final three, their projected end of season RPI is still in the 70s.  They played a very soft non conference SOS and have no signature OOC wins.  They have a lot of work left to do.