2015 NCAA Tournament Bracket: Projection of Field After Start of Conference Play

Kentucky is still the No. 1 overall seed in our latest projection of the 2015 NCAA tournament bracket. However, the Wildcats don't have quite the same stranglehold on that top spot after a pair of scares in SEC play.

It's at this point in the season that projected brackets actually start to resemble the final product. There will still be plenty of movement, but we more or less know the teams that will compete.

Of the 40 teams deemed a No. 10 seed or better in the mid-January projected bracket from last season, 36 made the tournament. Florida State was the biggest miss. The Seminoles were 12-4 when we projected them for a No. 7 seed, but they went 7-9 the rest of the year to earn a No. 1 seed in the NIT.

On the flip side of that coin, every team that earned a No. 9 seed or better in March was in our projected field in mid-January.

Maybe we got a little lucky, but it's more likely a case of quality teams proving their merit over the first two months of the season and jostling for position for the last two months.

Computer metrics are finally starting to make some sense, so RPI was more of a consideration in this bracket than it has been in the recent past. KenPom.com (KP), Sagarin and BPI ratings are also taken into consideration for a more holistic view of each team's resume. And, of course, the oft-mentioned, never-quantifiable eye test was part of the seeding process.

As always, we'll take a look at the last five teams to make the field, the first five out and a few on the horizon.

After that, we'll present each seeded region, including the subregional locations in which each pod would be played, and some commentary on each region. Then we'll defend the rankings of the No. 1 seeds, followed by a summary of the entire field broken up by conference.

Statistics on the following slides courtesy of ESPN.com and KenPom.com (subscription required). RPI and KP numbers current through the start of play on Thursday, Jan. 15. Win-loss records include only games against D-I opponents and are current through the start of play on Friday, Jan. 16.

Last 5 In

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Last Team In: BYU Cougars (13-5, RPI: 55, KP: 39)

It's not officially bracket season until BYU is smack-dab on the bubble.

For the past three seasons, BYU has been ranked 61st, 59th and 53rd in the country, according to KenPom.com, which is prime real estate in Bubble-ville. The Cougars appear to be headed for something in that vicinity once again this season.

They were relatively safe in the field until their home loss to Pepperdine last Thursday. Unless they plan on winning their road game at Gonzaga at the end of the season, that might have been their only permitted mulligan in WCC play.

A loss to Saint Mary's wouldn't be bad for BYU's resume, but it certainly wouldn't help its argument for being the second-best team in the WCC. A loss to any other non-Gonzaga conference foe would just about kill BYU's tournament dreams.

But thanks to Wyoming dropping out of the picture after its loss to San Diego State on Wednesday night, the Cougars and their highest-scoring offense in the country live to see at least one more day in the projected field.

Kyle Collinsworth and his four triple-doubles deserve at least that much.

Second-to-Last: Indiana Hoosiers (13-4, RPI: 47, KP: 58)

Welcome to the Big Ten dilemma.

Only three of the conference's 14 teams are currently ranked in the RPI Top 40, so what exactly constitutes a quality win or a quality loss? Indiana's win over Ohio State looks great and its loss at Michigan State doesn't seem too bad, but the Hoosiers are going to need at least a couple more "good" wins to secure their spot in the field.

That makes their upcoming four-game stretch nothing short of critical. Indiana plays road games against Illinois, Ohio State and Purdue, with a home game against Maryland sandwiched in between.

Anything less than 3-1 in those games would be a problem.

Third-to-Last: Georgia Bulldogs (10-5, RPI: 25, KP: 34)

Here's a case where savvy scheduling and a timely blowout helped elevate a seemingly average team into the projected field.

Because Georgia has played 11 teams in the RPI Top 150—seven away from home—and only one team outside the RPI Top 250, the Bulldogs have a strong RPI despite five losses.

Because Georgia beat Seton Hall by 18 and competed well in each of its five losses, the Bulldogs have a pretty strong KP rating, too.

We're more than a little skeptical about their inconsistency, though. In losses to Arkansas and LSU, Georgia was plus-31 on the glass against good teams with great frontcourts. But in the win over Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs were minus-nine in rebounding margin against an average-at-best frontcourt.

Fourth-to-Last: George Washington Colonials (13-4, RPI: 44, KP: 61)

George Washington's win over Wichita State in the Diamond Head Classic title game is its only RPI Top 50 win, but the Colonials should be in pretty good shape because of something they did to really endear themselves to the selection committee.

They are 4-4 vs. RPI Top 100 teams—and all eight of those games were played away from home.

Whether Charlotte, Colorado, Penn State and Rutgers are still in the RPI Top 100 at the end of the season is very much up in the air. For the time being, though, George Washington looks like a team that challenged itself during the nonconference portion of the season and fared pretty well in the process.

Fifth-to-Last: Syracuse Orange (13-4, RPI: 46, KP: 45)

The Orange are on a seven-game winning streak and will likely push that to nine games against Clemson and Boston College in the next few days. But they are 0-2 vs. the RPI Top 50 and recently lost a huge piece of their rotation with Chris McCullough out for the season with a torn ACL.

Rakeem Christmas has been unbelievably good in the paint. Trevor Cooney is shooting 46 percent from three-point range over his last nine games. Freshman point guard Kaleb Joseph has 26 assists against just seven turnovers since Christmas.

However, this is an extremely short rotation, and it's rather disturbing that Syracuse struggled to beat the likes of Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech with those key players executing about as well as one could hope.

The Orange look OK for now, but here's their schedule from February 14 through the end of the season: vs. Duke, vs. Louisville, vs. Pittsburgh, at Notre Dame, at Duke, vs. Virginia, at NC State. If they want to make the tournament, they'll need to earn it over the final month.

First 5 Out

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First Team Out: Washington Huskies (12-4, RPI: 71, KP: 69)

Talk about a free-fall.

Two weeks ago, we disregarded the loss to Stony Brook as an anomaly on an otherwise very impressive resume and awarded the Huskies a No. 5 seed. But after pushing that losing streak to four games against anything other than the best teams in the Pac-12, Washington has some serious work to do to get back into our good graces.

This team has the talent. Nigel Williams-Goss is one of the best lead guards in the country and a nightly threat for a triple-double. Robert Upshaw is the best shot-blocker in the country and has quickly elevated his game as both a scorer and a rebounder.

The Huskies just haven't been able to turn that talent into wins as of late. Even Thursday night's home win over Oregon State was far from comfortable until the final two minutes.

Second Team Out: Connecticut Huskies (9-6, RPI: 70, KP: 41)

The reigning champs weren't even close to the projected field two weeks ago, but a road win over Florida and a home win over Cincinnati were enough to get the Huskies back in the mix.

They have another huge nonconference (bubble) game coming up this weekend at Stanford. A win in Palo Alto would probably push Connecticut onto the right side of the bubble in advance of a pretty easy six-game stretch that includes games against Houston, Tulane, East Carolina, South Florida and UCF.

A loss to Stanford, though, would put the Huskies at 3-7 vs. the RPI Top 150 and in desperate need of some key wins over SMU and revenge wins over Temple and Tulsa.

Third Team Out: Tulsa Golden Hurricane (11-4, RPI: 34, KP: 60)

Tulsa might trick the computers, but the Golden Hurricane aren't fooling us.

Yes, they're undefeated in AAC play. Yes, they have wins over Temple and Connecticut.

However, we haven't forgotten about that loss to D-II Southeastern Oklahoma State, nor the season-opening loss to Oral Roberts.

This team was blown out by Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Wichita State. Until one week ago, the best thing the Golden Hurricane had done was win a neutral-court game against an Auburn team that shot 9.1 percent from three-point range and committed 23 turnovers while scoring 35 points.

It's going to take more than one decent week in the ninth-best conference in the country to really impress us.

Fourth Team Out: Wyoming Cowboys (13-3, RPI: 98, KP: 71)

There's certainly no shame in losing to San Diego State, but that was one of Wyoming's few remaining shots at a quality win after an awfully weak nonconference schedule.

RPI numbers will change as the season progresses, but here are the results of Wyoming's nonconference games against the RPI Top 225 (current RPI in parentheses):

• 66-53 loss at SMU (18)
• 56-33 win vs. Colorado (67)
• 45-42 loss at Cal (111)
• 78-75 win vs. New Mexico State (166)

And that's it. Four RPI Top 225 games. One RPI Top 150 win.

The Cowboys may have done enough to get noticed by the AP voters this past Monday, but they have some serious work to do in MWC play to make up for November and December. 

Fifth Team Out: Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (12-4, RPI: 103, KP: 49)

Well, if Wyoming is still in the discussion with those computer numbers, we have to throw a bone in Louisiana Tech's way as well.

The lack of great resumes in the typically multibid leagues (particularly the Big Ten, American and A-10) leaves the door wide open for a second team in Conference USA to earn an at-large bid.

The Bulldogs might not be in great shape at the moment—road losses by single digits to NC State, Syracuse and Temple will be the blown opportunities they can point to if they miss the dance—but they're undefeated in conference play with three road wins already in their pocket. Save for the road game against Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech will be favored in every remaining game it plays.

Even if the Bulldogs lose that game and slip up against a team like Charlotte or Western Kentucky, a 25-6 record at the start of the C-USA tournament might be just enough this year. Heaven knows that projected outcome was enough to keep Southern Miss in the discussion in years past.

Next 9 Out

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Here's one sentence each on nine teams (in no particular order) on our radar, but not quite within a stone's throw of the field.

Kansas State Wildcats (10-7): They've had a nice start to Big 12 play with wins over TCU and Oklahoma, but it'll take more than that to make up for going 2-6 vs. RPI Top 150 teams during nonconference play.

Illinois Fighting Illini (12-6): Opening Big Ten play with four out of five on the road was not easy, but Illinois will need to protect its home court to improve its 2-5 record vs. the RPI Top 100.

North Carolina State Wolfpack (12-6): The Wolfpack had an outstanding win against Duke over the weekend, but they are 0-3 away from home and their second-best win came against Tennessee.

South Carolina Gamecocks (9-5): Beating Iowa State was huge, but subsequently losing consecutive games to Florida and Ole Miss essentially undid that win.

Saint Mary's Gaels (13-3): With no marquee wins to speak of, that home loss to Northern Arizona is quite problematic.

Florida Gators (10-6): It might take a win over Kentucky for the Gators to get in, but we aren't ready to completely forget about them just yet.

TCU Horned Frogs (13-3): They're winless in Big 12 play, but they have been very physical and competitive, pushing Baylor to overtime and nearly winning on the road against Kansas State.

Pittsburgh Panthers (11-5): ACC play will give them plenty of chances, but they're still winless vs. RPI Top 100 teams, and that loss to Hawaii isn't getting any prettier.

Rhode Island Rams (10-4): The Rams are also winless vs. the RPI Top 100, but without the bad loss or the great opportunities for marquee conference wins—losing their only game against VCU after leading for more than 30 minutes was brutal.

East Region (Syracuse)

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Charlotte, North Carolina

No. 1 Virginia (16-0, RPI: 3, KP: 1)
No. 16 North Carolina Central/Texas Southern

No. 8 St. John's (11-4, RPI: 23, KP: 27)
No. 9 San Diego State (12-4, RPI: 28, KP: 32)

Jacksonville, Florida

No. 4 Wichita State (14-2, RPI: 12, KP: 18)
No. 13 Buffalo (MAC auto bid)

No. 5 Texas (12-4, RPI: 35, KP: 31)
No. 12 Indiana/BYU (last five in)

Portland, Oregon

No. 3 Arizona (15-2, RPI: 11, KP: 9)
No. 14 Georgia State (Sun Belt auto bid)

No. 6 Ohio State (14-4, RPI: 49, KP: 17)
No. 11 Syracuse (13-4, RPI: 46, KP: 45)

Louisville, Kentucky

No. 2 Kansas (14-2, RPI: 1, KP: 14)
No. 15 USC Upstate (Atlantic Sun auto bid)

No. 7 Miami (12-4, RPI: 52, KP: 50)
No. 10 Seton Hall (13-4, RPI: 19, KP: 37)

Stock up: Miami Hurricanes (up five lines)

It's funny how much a 16-point road win over Duke can do for a team's resume.

After early wins over Florida and Illinois, Miami was 8-0 and flying high in advance of a pretty hard crash. Not only did the Hurricanes lose three of their next four games, but they weren't even competitive in home losses to Green Bay and Eastern Kentucky.

However, they've bounced back nicely from that rough stretch in mid-December. Before the season-changing win over Duke, they also pushed Virginia to double overtime. It's the only time during the regular season that they'll face either of those teams, and that's certainly not a bad impression to leave with two of the ACC's top teams.

There's no rest for the wicked in this conference, as Miami has another huge road game this weekend against Notre Dame.

Stock down: San Diego State Aztecs (down three lines)

They picked up a nice road win over Wyoming on Wednesday night, but one win over a bubble team doesn't forgive that atrocious loss to Fresno State.

The Aztecs aren't in any particular danger of missing the tournament—that win over Utah in the first week of the season isn't going anywhere—but the Mountain West isn't anywhere near as strong as it has been in recent years without New Mexico or UNLV near the tournament field. San Diego State may want to avoid suffering any more conference losses to bottom-feeders.

Holding steady: Wichita State Shockers (up one line)

Thus far, the Shockers are taking care of business in Missouri Valley play. They're 5-0 and have won each of those games by at least eight points.

The big game doesn't come until the end of the month, though. Ron Baker and Co. travel to Northern Iowa on Jan. 31 in a battle that could very well determine who wins the regular-season title.

This is very likely a two-bid league regardless, but a MVC title would mean a lot for their tournament seed.

Midwest Region (Cleveland)

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Louisville, Kentucky

No. 1 Kentucky (16-0, RPI: 2, KP: 2)
No. 16 Coastal Carolina/St. Francis (Pennsylvania)

No. 8 Colorado State (15-2, RPI: 27, KP: 66)
No. 9 Iowa (12-5, RPI: 51, KP: 40)

Seattle

No. 4 Iowa State (12-3, RPI: 26, KP: 16)
No. 13 Iona (MAAC auto bid)

No. 5 Northern Iowa (15-2, RPI: 22, KP: 22)
No. 12 Green Bay (Horizon auto bid)

Columbus, Ohio

No. 3 VCU (14-3, RPI: 4, KP: 13)
No. 14 Murray State (Ohio Valley auto bid)

No. 6 SMU (12-4, RPI: 18, KP: 25)
No. 11 Georgetown (11-5, RPI: 32, KP: 44)

Charlotte, North Carolina

No. 2 Duke (14-2, RPI: 8, KP: 11)
No. 15 Wofford (Southern auto bid)

No. 7 Butler (13-5, RPI: 15, KP: 28)
No. 10 Cincinnati (11-5, RPI: 37, KP: 35)

Stock up: Butler Bulldogs (up four lines)

How much have things changed since last year in the Big East?

Since the last update, Butler has wins over St. John's, Seton Hall and Xavier and a loss to Providence. In 2013-14, that's a 1-1 record against bubble teams and a pair of wins over teams fighting like heck to have an overall record of .500. This year, though, it's three quality wins and an acceptable loss to a good team.

The conference isn't quite as stacked as the Big 12, but just about anything other than home games against Creighton, DePaul and Marquette could result in quality wins.

The Bulldogs jumped to a No. 7 seed this week, and they might not be finished climbing. Beyond Villanova, it's a bit of a convoluted mess as to which teams rank No. 2 through No. 7 in the Big East, but the second- and third-best teams are headed for a pretty nice seed when all is said and done. 

Stock down: Iowa Hawkeyes (down three lines)

They do have a couple of quality road wins over North Carolina and Ohio State, but the Hawkeyes would kindly ask that you not dig any deeper into their resume.

After getting run out of their own gym by Michigan State earlier this month, Iowa is now 2-5 vs. the RPI Top 100. There are plenty of opportunities for big wins in the near future—in the next 24 days, the Hawkeyes have home games against Ohio State and Maryland as well as two games against Wisconsin—but they need to actually turn those opportunities into quality wins.

If they're not careful, they'll be out of the field with almost no hope of return by Valentine's Day.

Holding steady: SMU Mustangs (up one line)

The start of SMU's season didn't exactly go according to plan. It took less than two weeks for the Mustangs to pick up three losses.

However, it's hard to argue that road losses to Gonzaga and Indiana or a home loss to Arkansas—all without their stud, Markus Kennedy—were particularly inexcusable. They've played well since then, scoring road wins over Michigan and Temple, as well as home wins over UC Santa Barbara and Wyoming.

Now that they have played their road games against Cincinnati and Temple, though, there aren't many quality wins to be had. The rest of the way, it's mostly a matter of avoiding bad losses, so don't be surprised if the Mustangs are just holding steady for the next two months.

South Region (Houston)

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Pittsburgh

No. 1 Villanova (16-1, RPI: 5, KP: 4)
No. 16 New Mexico State (WAC auto bid)

No. 8 Oklahoma State (11-4, RPI: 29, KP: 24)
No. 9 LSU (13-3, RPI: 36, KP: 52)

Jacksonville, Florida

No. 4 North Carolina (13-4, RPI: 9, KP: 7)
No. 13 Eastern Washington (Big Sky auto bid)

No. 5 Baylor (13-3, RPI: 16, KP: 20)
No. 12 Harvard (Ivy Auto Bid)

Columbus, Ohio

No. 3 Louisville (15-2, RPI: 24, KP: 8)
No. 14 Northeastern (Colonial auto bid)

No. 6 Oklahoma (11-5, RPI: 33, KP: 12)
No. 11 Davidson (11-3, RPI: 38, KP: 30)

Omaha, Nebraska

No. 2 Wisconsin (16-2, RPI: 7, KP: 6)
No. 15 Lafayette (Patriot auto bid)

No. 7 Arkansas (13-3, RPI: 13, KP: 29)
No. 10 Stanford (12-4, RPI: 30, KP: 42)

Stock up: Davidson Wildcats (new to the field)

Before the season, I gave Davidson no chance of winning the A-10. I even said the Wildcats could legitimately go 0-18—which a handful of Davidson fans on Twitter have politely informed me was a bit inaccurate.

But I'm jumping on the bandwagon if they'll let me.

This is easily one of the best offenses in the country. Davidson scored 72 points at Virginia. That doesn't happen. The Cavaliers went to Notre Dame and held another one of the nation's most efficient offenses to just 56 points. So for some minor-conference-turned-mid-major-conference team to come into John Paul Jones Arena and just set the nets on fire was a bit crazy.

The problem with Davidson's resume, though, is a lack of quality wins. The Wildcats have played well in losses to three RPI Top 10 teams, but aside from that, they've pretty much just been beating up on not-very-good teams.

Still, 3-1 in A-10 play without anything resembling a bad loss is more than enough for a spot in the field. They'll have more chances at key wins. They still host Dayton and VCU and play a pair of games against George Washington. And they'll inevitably shoot their way to victory in at least one or two of those games.

Stock down: Oklahoma Sooners (down two lines)

It's not easy to beat Baylor, blow out Texas on the road and drop two lines, but the Sooners went from unstoppable to unreliable overnight with a home loss to Kansas State and a 21-point loss to West Virginia.

Toss in the fact that the neutral-court loss to Washington is getting uglier by the day, and this resume isn't nearly as pretty as it used to be.

So who is the real Oklahoma? Is it the team that beat Texas into submission or the one that couldn't play defense or stop committing turnovers against West Virginia? Are the real Sooners the ones who built an 18-point lead at Creighton or the ones who let it slip away?

Not every Big 12 team can win 12 conference games, and Oklahoma is starting to look like the early volunteer for the "Is an 8-10 record in Big 12 play good enough for a bid?" experiment.

Holding steady: North Carolina Tar Heels (down one line)

The Tar Heels dropped a seed line, but they only went from No. 12 to No. 13 on the overall seed chart.

Outside of the blowout win over Clemson, North Carolina has established that it is perfectly content playing nothing but nail-biters in conference play.

Marcus Paige and Co. stormed back from a second-half double-digit deficit to lose by one to Notre Dame. They did the exact same thing against Louisville, except Paige's late layup fell in that game for a one-point win. On Wednesday, they flipped the script and tried to give away a late 12-point lead before hanging on for a two-point win over NC State.

We'll see if they can break that trend and get back up to a No. 3 seed with easy wins over Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Florida State in the next 10 days.

West Region (Los Angeles)

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Seattle

No. 1 Gonzaga (16-1, RPI: 6, KP: 3)
No. 16 Stony Brook (America East auto bid)

No. 8 Old Dominion (14-2, RPI: 31, KP: 43)
No. 9 Temple (12-6, RPI: 50, KP: 68)

Omaha, Nebraska

No. 4 Notre Dame (16-2, RPI: 48, KP: 15)
No. 13 Stephen F Austin (Southland auto bid)

No. 5 Maryland (16-2, RPI: 16, KP: 21)
No. 12 Georgia/George Washington (last five in)

Pittsburgh

No. 3 West Virginia (15-2, RPI: 14, KP: 10)
No. 14 UC Davis (Big West auto bid)

No. 6 Dayton (14-2, RPI: 20, KP: 33)
No. 11 Xavier (11-6, RPI: 40, KP: 26)

Portland, Oregon

No. 2 Utah (13-2, RPI: 10, KP: 5)
No. 15 South Dakota State (Summit auto bid)

No. 7 Michigan State (12-5, RPI: 39, KP: 19)
No. 10 Providence (13-5, RPI: 21, KP: 55)

Stock up: Dayton Flyers (up five lines)

As noted at length by Gary Parrish for CBSSports.com earlier this week, Dayton has been playing with substantially less than a full deck.

"Six scholarship players—none taller than 6'6"," Parrish wrote. "If somebody asks what's up with Dayton after last season's trip to the Elite Eight, that's what you can tell them, that the Flyers now only have six scholarship players—none taller than 6'6"."

That wasn't always the case. The Flyers opened the season 7-2 with some serious help from 6'9" Devon Scott and 6'9" Jalen Robinson, but those big men were dismissed from the program in late December.

That should have been the death of Dayton, but instead the Flyers have won seven straight games—and even won the rebounding battle in four of them.

In the aforementioned story by Parrish, head coach Archie Miller said, "If you have five on the court who are executing on both sides of the ball, and if you have an attitude about yourself every day, a chip on your shoulder, good things can happen."

We're still waiting on one really good thing to happen for Dayton: a quality win. The Flyers are 14-2, but they're 0-1 against teams currently projected for the field. Their only games against VCU, Davidson and George Washington are on the road, so they'll have their work cut out for them to get that signature win.

Stock down: Xavier Musketeers (down four lines)

Big East play started out so promising for the X-Men, as they destroyed Georgetown on New Year's Eve.

It's been all downhill since then, though. They did get a nice home win over Seton Hall, but that's an oasis in a desert of road losses, surrounded by a loss at DePaul and back-to-back losses by double digits at Butler and Villanova.

When Xavier wins, it wins big. The Musketeers are 0-4 in games decided by 10 or fewer points, meaning they have 11 wins by at least 11 points. But they'll need to learn how to grind out wins in a hurry if they want to survive in this conference.

Holding steady: Old Dominion Monarchs (No change)

The Monarchs dropped out of the AP Top 25 after a loss to Western Kentucky, but they're holding steady as a No. 8 seed in our book.

We wouldn't call it a good loss, but if that's the worst thing that happens to Old Dominion in C-USA play, it'll make the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens in the conference tournament.

The win over Georgia State isn't looking anywhere near as valuable as it once did, but beating VCU and winning a neutral-court game over LSU will hold a lot of water if the Monarchs can still count their losses on one hand at season's end.

Ranking the No. 1 Seeds

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No. 4: Gonzaga Bulldogs (16-1, RPI: 6, KP: 3, SOS: 44)

This might set a new record for earliest point in the season that a team from a non-major conference became a consensus No. 1 seed.

At this time last year, we were still projecting Wichita State for a No. 3 seed. The same goes for Gonzaga two seasons ago during the Kelly Olynyk era. But here the Bulldogs are at No. 3 in the AP Top 25 and No. 4 overall in our projected bracket with two months left to be played.

Other than making voodoo dolls of other top teams, though, there's really nothing Gonzaga can do to improve its national standing.

If Kansas and Utah keep winning and Duke and Wisconsin get back on track while Villanova, Virginia and Kentucky avoid any bad losses, it won't be long before Gonzaga drops almost entirely out of the conversation for a No. 1 seed. Conversely, the Zags are just a couple of losses away from projecting as the No. 1 overall seed.

It should be fun to watch how much this team bounces around without suffering any losses—or to watch how far Gonzaga plummets if it does lose a WCC game.

No. 3: Villanova Wildcats (16-1, RPI: 5, KP: 4, SOS: 17)

Quick: Who is Villanova's best or most popular player?

We all know Kevin Pangos and Kyle Wiltjer at Gonzaga, Justin Anderson and Malcolm Brogdon at Virginia and Kentucky's entire roster, but I'd be willing to bet that 75 percent of fans of teams outside the Big East couldn't even name more than one player on Villanova's roster.

That's anything other than a slight against this team. Rather, it's an acknowledgement that many will be skeptical of Villanova's staying power as a No. 1 seed because of its lack of star power.

Don't let a lack of familiarity cloud your judgment, though. Villanova has arguably the best and most unselfish eight-man rotation in the country. Dylan Ennis and Daniel Ochefu have been light-years better than we imagined. Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins have improved substantially as sophomores, and freshman Phil Booth has been very solid as a reserve guard.

We're forever waiting for JayVaughn Pinkston to be the type of dominant presence we expected the senior to be, but it's pretty incredible that Villanova has played this well in spite of his struggles.

No. 2: Virginia Cavaliers (16-0, RPI: 3, KP: 1, SOS: 7)

Even despite Kentucky's much-discussed struggles at the start of SEC play, this was a much tougher decision than you might think.

Virginia has 11 RPI Top 100 wins. That's more than any other team in the country. Kansas is the only other team that can even boast of 10 such wins. Six of those 11 wins for Virginia have come away from home.

But all nine of Kentucky's RPI Top 100 wins have actually come against the RPI Top 60, and they have mostly come in blowout fashion. That 32-point neutral-court win over RPI No. 1 Kansas is the gift that just keeps on giving.

It's very close, though. If the gap between Virginia and Kentucky is an inch, the gap between Virginia and Villanova might be a yard.

The longer both these teams stay undefeated, the more likely it is that the Cavaliers will overtake the Wildcats. Upcoming games against Boston College, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech won't mean a thing (unless they result in losses), but playing Duke, North Carolina and Louisville in a span of eight days will be a nice way to prove whether Virginia belongs at No. 1 overall.

No. 1: Kentucky Wildcats (16-0, RPI: 2, KP: 2, SOS: 5)

The Wildcats had a couple of scares against Ole Miss and Texas A&M, but Virginia wasn't exactly flawless in back-to-back games against Davidson and Miami, either. Virginia's opponents in those games were marginally better, but Kentucky was held in significantly higher regard before either of the remaining undefeated teams was really pushed to the limit.

As such, Kentucky remains the No. 1 overall seed as it has been since long before the season began.

It doesn't hurt that the Wildcats lampooned Missouri by a 49-point margin the last time we saw them. A third consecutive test in SEC play might have made it more tempting to drop them to No. 2, but it was refreshing to see that return to normalcy.

Seeding by Conference

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In case seeded regions aren't for you and you just want to know where the "top" 68 teams stand in relation to one another, here is the list of each team's overall seed, broken out by conference (first five out in italics).

Atlantic 10: 12. VCU; 22. Dayton; 43. Davidson; 45. George Washington

American: 24. SMU; 34. Temple; 40. Cincinnati; 70. Connecticut; 71. Tulsa

ACC: 2. Virginia; 8. Duke; 10. Louisville; 13. North Carolina; 16. Notre Dame; 28. Miami; 44. Syracuse

Big 12: 5. Kansas; 11. West Virginia; 14. Iowa State; 18. Baylor; 19. Texas; 23. Oklahoma; 32. Oklahoma State

Big East: 3. Villanova; 26. Butler; 30. St. John's; 37. Seton Hall; 38. Providence; 41. Georgetown; 42. Xavier

Big Ten: 7. Wisconsin; 17. Maryland; 21. Ohio State; 27. Michigan State; 36. Iowa; 47. Indiana

Conference USA: 31. Old Dominion; 73. Louisiana Tech

Missouri Valley: 15. Wichita State; 20. Northern Iowa

Mountain West: 29. Colorado State; 33. San Diego State; 72, Wyoming

Pac-12: 6. Utah; 9. Arizona; 39. Stanford; 69. Washington

SEC: 1. Kentucky; 25. Arkansas; 35. LSU; 46. Georgia

West Coast: 4. Gonzaga; 48. BYU

Other: 49. Green Bay; 50. Harvard; 51. Eastern Washington; 52. Buffalo; 53. Iona; 54. Stephen F. Austin; 55. Georgia State; 56. Murray State; 57. Northeastern; 58. UC Davis; 59. Wofford; 60. USC Upstate; 61. Lafayette; 62. South Dakota State; 63. Stony Brook; 64. New Mexico State; 65. NC Central; 66. Texas Southern; 67. Coastal Carolina; 68. St. Francis (PA)

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.