The bracketologists weigh in
The Monday brackets are up.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projects South Carolina as a No. 11 seed, and not among his last four in the NCAA tournament. In Lunardi’s scenario, USC would face Syracuse in the first round, with a potential second-round matchup with Duke.
The SEC gets five teams in Lunardi’s bracket, but interestingly first-place LSU has a lower seed (8) than Kentucky (7).
Andy Glockner of SI.com has the most optimistic viewpoint for South Carolina, placing USC as a No. 8 seed and facing Texas in the first round, with a potential second-round matchup against North Carolina. Glockner also has all five SEC teams in the field, LSU getting the highest seed at No. 7 and Florida the lowest at No. 11.
Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com and CBSsports.com is much more skeptical of the SEC in general. He has South Carolina among his last four in, along with Oklahoma State, Penn State and Texas A&M. (His close-but-NIT four is Cincinnati, Miami, Michigan and San Diego State.)
The Gamecocks are a No. 12 seed in Palm’s bracket, matched with Washington. The other four SEC contenders all get in, with LSU and Florida both No. 8 seeds, Kentucky a No. 10 and Tennessee a No. 11.
Just how volatile are these things, by the way? Maryland, way out before it took the court against North Carolina Saturday, is a No. 10 seed in Palm’s bracket, not even in the last four in. The Terps are the last team in Lunardi’s field, and just miss Glockner’s field.
Oklahoma State has made a similar jump, thanks to a three-game win streak that has vaulted the Cowboys’ RPI rank up to 31.
So for South Carolina the priority remains taking care of their own business – increasingly, I think 11 wins, including the SEC tournament, is the magic number – but then hoping there aren’t any more Marylands and Oklahoma States out there.
7 Comments to “The bracketologists weigh in”
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State newspaper sports writer Seth Emerson blogs on University of South Carolina basketball and baseball.
I don’t see Palm’s latest bracket on his website yet.
Oh I see now. Since I don’t have a subscription to his sight, I can only see the latest bracket each Friday on Palm’s website.
You got to love that LSU has received a # Smiley Face with shades in Lanardi’s bracket, haha. I think you made a typo Seth….
Yeah Jimmy, that’s some sort of glitch created by putting a period around a parenthesis. Weird. I fixed it.
Seth, you are awesome. Keep up the good work, and if we win out it will all be for naught. I hope that is the case. Go Gamecocks!
I concur. Rock on Seth!
Georgetown continuing to lose helps all the “bubble” teams. USC will be a bubble team if we go 2-2 down the stretch. Gotta beat UK!