18-NOV Bracket Projections: UCLA rises, Louisville drops

Teams with a Zero

We’re in double digits for both undefeated and winless teams after the weekend.  74 teams as of Sunday night (Minnesota’s game is currently underway) are undefeated against Division I competition.  Michigan, Maryland, and Pittsburgh lead the way with a 5-0 mark.  76 teams have yet to record a win.  King Rice’s Monmouth squad, who just a few years back owned the early part of the season, are the only team winless in six Division I games.

Notable Games

An underwhelming start, but three of the five games that featured a blue blood and a mid-major proved competitive, and I came within a bucket of nailing the Indiana-Arkansas score exactly.  Hopefully a sign that better results are upcoming.  Five neutral court battles this week being spotlighted.

This week's top five as I see them (2-3 last week, 6-9 overall):

#5 Tennessee vs Louisville, Wed – Louisville 72, Tennessee 71

#4 Mississippi State vs Arizona State, Mon – Arizona State 74, Mississippi State 73

#3 Saint Mary’s vs Utah State, Mon – Saint Mary’s 74, Utah State 71

#2 UCLA vs Michigan State, Thu – Michigan State 79, UCLA 75

#1 Duke vs San Diego State, Mon – Duke 78, San Diego State 74

Bracket

My updated bracket can be found below.  Right now, the weighting is 68% last year/pre-season and 32% results from this season.

Swapping out five auto bids:

Sun Belt- Georgia Southern (Louisiana)

WAC- Grand Canyon (New Mexico St.)- Futility alert, would be first appearance in program history

Southern- UNC Greensboro (Furman)

The following two are effectively reversing out swaps made in the last bracket

CAA- Charleston (Northeastern)

Summit- South Dakota State (South Dakota)

Also, swapping in six at larges including Kansas St., Texas, Wisconsin, BYU, San Francisco, and Utah St.  Syracuse, West Virginia, Florida, Davidson, TCU and Utah have dropped out.