Louisville:
1. Louisville
16. UMKC (WAC)
8. UCF
9. DePaul
Des Moines:
5. South Carolina
12. Bucknell (Patriot)
4. Drake (MVC)
13. Rice (CUSA)
Shoutout to Rice, which is 7-0 in CUSA and a new member of the field this week. The Owls haven’t lost since before Christmas and own two Group 1 wins. CUSA isn’t that good, but Rice has avoided bad losses and compiled seven road wins so far.
Iowa City:
6. Oregon State
11. West Virginia
3. Iowa
14. Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
Starkville:
7. South Dakota (Summit)
10. Georgia Tech
2. Mississippi State (SEC)
15. Radford (Big South)
Welcome, West Virginia! I wrote about the impact of their huge win over Texas yesterday. Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, they project to draw an Oregon State team that is probably better than its seed, it just doesn’t have a resume to match it. The Beavers’ win over South Carolina has aged nicely, but that remains their only win against projected tournament teams. The next best win is against Arizona, which just misses the field as of now. They can make a leap this week with a win over Utah.