Joe Lunardi Bracket: Most Likely Mistakes in ESPN Guru's Bracketology

With the revealing of the NCAA tournament bracket nearly upon us, there isn't much left that can really affect what teams will be involved. If St. Bonaventure wins the Atlantic 10 championship, then that will take a bubble spot away, but aside from that, most of the decisions have likely been made.

ESPN bracketology guru Joe Lunardi has his updated bracket projections posted, and while most of it is tough to argue with, there is no question that there are some flaws.

For as accurate as Lunardi is, it's extremely difficult to get everything right, so he is bound to have a few missteps in terms of seeding and which teams will or won't be in the Big Dance.

Here are three things that will be proven to be mistakes in Lunardi's bracket predictions.

Kansas as No. 1 Seed Over Missouri

While it's tough to go wrong with the Kansas Jayhawks as a No. 1 seed since they went 16-2 in the Big 12 and 27-6 overall this season, it is quite easy to make a case for the Missouri Tigers to supplant them.

The Jayhawks may have won the conference's regular season title, but Mizzou won the Big 12 tournament, soundly defeating the Baylor Bears in the final. On top of that, the Tigers had a better overall record this season at 30-4.

Kansas and Missouri played each other twice during the regular season, and while the Jayhawks nipped the Tigers in the second meeting in overtime, Mizzou won the first matchup.

Both teams are very good, and it is like splitting hairs when picking the better team, but since Missouri won the conference tournament and had a better overall record, they should get the No. 1 seed, making Lunardi's projection of Kansas incorrect.

Drexel Out of Tournament

Despite the fact that they won 25 of their final 27 games and fell just short in the CAA tournament final against VCU, the Drexel Dragons haven't been getting much love from pundits.

Many seem to be wrapped up in the fact that Drexel has an RPI in the 60s and a strength of schedule in the 200s, but it seems silly to punish their success because of some statistics. The Dragons won the regular season title in what is traditionally a two-bid conference with a record of 16-2, so that should be good enough in and of itself.

Also, while every win or loss is supposed to count the same regardless of when it happened, it's tough to ignore how good Drexel was down the stretch. The goal is to include teams in the tournament that have a chance to beat any other team, so it stands to reason that the committee would prefer a hot team over a team that stumbled to the finish line.

Lunardi has the Dragons as his second team out of the tourney, but I expect them to be rewarded properly with an NCAA tournament bid.

Mississippi State In Tournament

Entering the SEC tournament, the Mississippi State Bulldogs seemed like a good bet to go dancing, as they were 21-10 overall and 8-8 in a solid conference.

Had Mississippi State defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in the first round of the tournament, then it likely would have been a lock. Mississippi State laid an egg, however, as it lost by 10 to a 15-17 Georgia. Despite that terrible loss, Lunardi still has the Bulldogs as one of his last four teams in.

In many ways, the Bulldogs are like the anti-Drexel. They started the season in grand fashion, but over the past month they have been quite awful. Mississippi State lost five straight games down the stretch, including contests against SEC cellar-dwellers like Georgia, LSU and Auburn, and it took overtime to beat South Carolina, which is the conference's worst team.

The Bulldogs have played their way out of a tournament bid, and Lunardi will be proven wrong in his prediction that they make it.