Bald Prophet 2009 NCAA Tournament Projections: Fourth Edition

Oklahoma takes a No. 1 seed away from Wake Forest. The big movers in the upward direction were Kentucky, which is leading the SEC, and Utah State, which has only lost one game all year and also made its BP Top 25 debut.

In the downward direction went Ohio State, who now has a losing record in the Big Ten, and Georgetown, who is in a tailspin and is nearly out of the top 25 in all relevant polls.

The last four teams in are Wisconsin (they still have a strong profile despite their recent struggles), Miami (Fla.) (McLinton and Co. are a solid bunch who could knock off any No. 5 seed), Southern Cal (I've been waiting for these guys to live up to their clippings), and San Diego State (yes, I think the Mountain West will get three teams in).

The last four teams out were Notre Dame (explain to me how they're still a top 25 team in some polls), LSU (if they had beaten Xavier they would've snuck in), Mississippi State (strange team, again they have a worse record than their talent or coaching would indicate), and St. Joe's (if you have a big Philly bias you could make a slight case for three A-10 teams).

East

1 UConn v. 16 Play-In (Holy Cross/Alabama St.)

2 UNC v. 15 Vermont

3 Arizona State v. 14 Cornell

4 Memphis v. 13 VCU

5 Texas v. 12 Wisconsin

6 Florida v. 11 Baylor

7 Georgetown v. 10 Michigan

8 Gonzaga v. 9 Virginia Tech

South

1 Duke v. 16 Morgan State

2 Louisville v. 15 Jacksonville

3 Michigan State v. 14 Arkansas Little-Rock

4 Butler v. 13 VMI

5 Syracuse v. 12 Southern Cal

6 Kansas v. 11 BYU

7 Cal v. 10 Florida State

8 Tennessee v. 9 Missouri

Midwest

1 Pitt v. 16 Texas A&M-CC

2 Xavier v. 15 Robert Morris

3 Marquette v. 14 Austin Peay

4 Kentucky v. 13 Buffalo

5 UCLA v. 12 San Diego State

6 Clemson v. 11 Ohio State

7 Oklahoma State v. 10 Utah State

8 Davidson v. 9 Minnesota

West

1 Oklahoma v. 16 Long Beach State

2 Wake Forest v. 15 North Dakota State

3 Illinois v. 14 Portland State

4 Washington v. 13 Northern Iowa

5 Purdue v. 12 Miami (Fl.)

6 Villanova v. 11 South Carolina

7 St. Mary’s v. 10 UNLV

8 West Virginia v. 9 Siena