Selection Eve’s Big 12, Big East and ACC championship tripleheader provided plenty of drama, but no upsets, as the highest-remaining seed claimed each game. And with those victories, three of the four spots at the top of 2018’s NCAA Tournament bracket were locked up.
Bracketology 2018: An exciting, yet upset free Saturday night sets the top line early
With Virginia, Villanova and Kansas all seeing off danger in their respective conference title games, only the fourth No. 1 seed is really up for debate.
Nicole Sweet-USA TODAY Sports
- With their 71-63 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels, the ACC regular season and tournament champion Virginia Cavaliers will anchor the South region as the No. 1 overall seed at 31-2. Tony Bennett’s team has earned a top seed in each even-numbered year since 2014.
- While the 30-4 Villanova Wildcats didn’t claim the Big East’s regular season crown, they won the tournament title by pulling away from the plucky Providence Friars, 76-66. It was the third straight overtime game for Ed Cooley’s squad and it looked like the Friars simply ran out of gas in the extra five minutes at Madison Square Garden. As for Nova, they’ll be seeded second overall, placing them at the top of the East region. The Wildcats earned No. 1 seeds in both 2015 and 2017.
- The Midwest goes to the 27-7 Kansas Jayhawks, who defeated the West Virginia Mountaineers for the third time this season, 81-70. The win means the Jayhawks are likely to earn a top seed for the third consecutive March.
And that leaves the West up for grabs with the 28-5 Xavier Musketeers, the Big East regular season champion, and the 26-7 Duke Blue Devils the two likeliest honorees. While the Blue Devils would get the edge based on quality wins alone, as Duke’s RPI top 10 wins over North Carolina, Clemson and Michigan State are more impressive than Xavier’s lone such victory, a December home triumph over Cincinnati, the Musketeers outrank the Blue Devils in the RPI (3rd vs. 6th). And there’s that pesky loss total. Making that statistic worse for Duke, they have four losses to teams outside of the top 50, while Xavier has just one — a November 24th defeat to Arizona State Sun Devils in Las Vegas.
With all that considered, Xavier will remain the fourth No. 1 seed in Sunday morning’s full bracket projection.
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