Brackets a la mode

Joey Brackets, er, Joe Lunardi, over at ESPN.com has South Carolina safely in as a No. 9 seed. In his projection, the Gamecocks face No. 8 BYU in the West Region – played in Greensboro, N.C. The potential second-round matchup would be against North Carolina.

Lunardi still is showing a lot of love to the SEC, putting four teams in, with Florida among his last four out. LSU is up to a No. 5 seed, the highest projection for an SEC team of this calendar year.

(Not to quibble with the bracketologist, but I’ve gotta think Kentucky has a lot of work left to do and should be included among the last four in.)

Then there is Jerry Palm of CollegeRPI.com, who has South Carolina among his last four in. (Kentucky isn’t in Palm’s field, or among his last four out.)

Palm has the Gamecocks as a No. 11 seed, facing UCLA in the West Region – played in Miami. The No. 3 seed in that region is Wake Forest.

Palm has LSU as a sixth seed, Tennessee at nine and Florida at 11.

Finally, SI.com has South Carolina in as a No. 9 seed in the West – in Kansas City, which is Midwest, but fine – and playing Wisconsin. The second-round matchup would be Oklahoma.