College Basketball

Bracket Watch: How Saturday's wild shakeup, headlined by Gonzaga's loss, impacts field of 68

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:10 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Michael Beller/Sports Illustrated

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