NCAA bracketology roundup: Marquette is Big East’s top-ranked team
As the college basketball season heats up, FOX Sports Wisconsin will round up what experts are saying about the chances for Marquette to make the NCAA tournament in March. This is the second edition of the 2019 bracketology roundup.
Things are looking promising for the Marquette Golden Eagles.
Winners of six straight games, Marquette (17-3, 6-1 Big East) is currently ranked 12th in the nation -- its highest placement in the AP Top 25 poll since the 2012-13 season when Vander Blue was balling for head coach Buzz Williams.
A stretch of four straight games against quality conference opponents -- Xavier, Butler, St. John’s and No. 18 Villanova -- awaits the Golden Eagles, beginning with a Saturday matinee against the Musketeers in Cincinnati. Steve Wojciechowski’s team will have to prove it can win on the road. Marquette is a perfect 14-0 at the shiny Fiserv Forum, but a 3-3 record away from Milwaukee leaves a few questions to be answered.
Bracket Matrix is a site that compiles 86 different brackets, ranging from experts at FOX and ESPN to bloggers for SB Nation and everything in between. It comes as no surprise that the Golden Eagles were included on all 86 brackets.
One blog, released Jan. 21, has Marquette as a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance. On the flip side, seven brackets ranked Marquette as low as a six seed, including one compiled by undergraduate students at Yale. Do they know something we don’t? Probably.
When averaging out all 86 brackets, Marquette is projected to land a four seed, along with No. 7 Nevada, No. 10 Virginia Tech and No. 23 Louisville.
The Golden Eagles are the highest-ranked team in the Big East. Villanova is close behind with an average ranking of a No. 5 seed, and St. John’s (10 seed), Seton Hall (10) and Butler (11) round out the projected tournament teams in the conference. For what it’s worth, Marquette also has the top NET ranking -- a tool for evaluating teams based on game results, strength of schedule, net offensive and defensive efficiency and more -- in the conference, coming in at No. 20 in the nation, four spots ahead of the rival Wildcats.
Take a look at which tournament seed 12 big-name brackets have assigned to the Golden Eagles below:
| BRACKET | SEED |
| FOX | 4 |
| ESPN | 4 |
| CBS | 3 |
| Bleacher Report | 5 |
| SB Nation | 3 |
| Sports Illustrated | 3 |
| Washington Post | 3 |
| NCAA.com (Katz) | 4 |
| Haslametrics | 4 |
| TeamRankings.com | 5 |
| Yale Undergraduates | 6 |
| Watch Stadium | 3 |
