Bracket Watch: How Saturday's wild shakeup, headlined by Gonzaga's loss, impacts field of 68
A Moving Day on Saturday is typically associated with golf in the sports world, but this weekend that trickled over to the college basketball universe. If there’s one day in particular that turns out to be the most responsible for the makeup of, and seeding within, the 2017 NCAA tournament, Saturday, February 25, will be it.
All of the following events occurred on college basketball’s version of Moving Day:
· Gonzaga’s bid for an undefeated season ended, with BYU pulling off a stunning upset in Spokane. The loss also put the Bulldogs’ hold on the No. 1 seed in the West Region in jeopardy.
· Kansas and North Carolina cruised to wins over inferior opponents, while Villanova clinched the Big East regular season title outright with a win against Creighton.
· UCLA earned its most impressive win of the season, knocking off Arizona in Tucson. The win essentially drew the Bruins even with the Wildcats and Oregon in the race for the No. 2 seed in the West Region, and possibly the top line out west should Gonzaga lose again.
· Kentucky, playing without De’Aaron Fox, went into Gainesville and beat Florida, 76–66. The win placed the Wildcats all alone atop the SEC standings, and gave them a path to improve on the No. 3 seed granted to them by the committee in its midseason reveal earlier this month.
· Baylor, which was a No. 1 seed in that same midseason reveal, lost for the fifth time in its last eight games, falling at Iowa State. With West Virginia on tap Monday, and the Big 12 tournament next week, the Bears’ slide down the bracket may not be over.
· Speaking of the Cyclones, they were one of a handful of teams that all but punched at-large tickets on Saturday. They were joined by Michigan, which throttled Purdue, and Miami, which shut down a Grayson Allen-less Duke team, as the big mid-seed winners on Moving Day. All three should now feel safe on Selection Sunday.
· In that same seeding neighborhood, Virginia Tech and Minnesota continued their march to at-large berths with easy wins over Penn State and Boston College, respectively. After Moving Day, the Gophers and Hokies should have nothing to worry about on Selection Sunday, either.
· Finally, it couldn’t be easy to break college basketball’s most notorious streak, right? Northwestern let a seven-point lead against Indiana with 1:33 left slip away, watching the Hoosiers go on an 8–0 run to close the game. The Wildcats have lost five of their last seven games, and finish the regular season at home with games against Michigan and Purdue.
So, yeah, you could say it was a busy day across the NCAA tournament landscape. How did all of that, as well as the 25 or so other games with tournament implications, affect the field of 68? We present that below in the Bracket Watch, updated for February 26.
Last Four In
Seton Hall
Illinois State
California
Georgia Tech
First Four Out
Kansas State
Wake Forest
Rhode Island
Vanderbilt
Next Four Out
TCU
Indiana
Georgia
Houston
The Field of 68
| Bracket Watch 2017 NCAA Tournament | |
| East | Midwest |
 1 Kansas | Villanova 1
|
| VS. | VS. |
 16 North Dakota/Mount St. Mary’s | New Orleans/Teas Southern16
|
 8 Xavier | Dayton 8
|
| VS. | VS. |
 9 Northwestern | USC9
|
 5 Virginia | Notre Dame 5
|
| VS. | VS. |
 12 East Tennessee State | UNC-Wilmington12
|
 4 Cincinnati | West Virginia4
|
| VS. | VS. |
 13 Belmont | Nevada 13
|
 6 Minnesota | Iowa State 6
|
| VS. | VS. |
 11 Marquette | Seton Hall/Illinois State11
|
 3 Florida State | Kentucky 3
|
| VS. | VS. |
 14 UNC-Asheville | Monmouth 14
|
 7 South Carolina | Saint Mary's 7
|
| VS. | VS. |
 10 Syracuse | VCU 10
|
 2 UCLA | Louisville2
|
| VS. | VS. |
 15 North Dakota State | Akron 15
|
| West | South |
 1 Gonzaga | North Carolina1
|
| VS. | VS. |
 16 NC Central | UC-Irvine16
|
 8 Oklahoma State | Michigan8
|
| VS. | VS. |
 9 Virginia Tech | Wichita State 9
|
 5 Purdue | Creighton5
|
| VS. | VS. |
 12 Princeton | California/Georgia Tech 12
|
 4 Duke | Florida 4
|
| VS. | VS. |
 13 UT-Arlington | Vermont 13
|
 6 Southern Methodist | Wisconsin 6
|
| VS. | VS. |
 11 Michigan State | Middle Tennessee State 11
|
 3Arizona | Butler3
|
| VS. | VS. |
 14 Valparaiso | Bucknell 14
|
 7 Maryland | Miami 7
|
| VS. | VS. |
 10 Providence | Arkansas 10
|
 2 Oregon | Baylor 2
|
| VS. | VS. |
 15 Florida Gulf Coast | Cal State Bakersfield15
|
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