The Ninth Bald Prophet Bracket Projection

Connecticut gets the overall No. 1 seed in this version and Kansas trades places with Oklahoma in terms of seeding as they lead the Big 12.

The last four teams to get in this version: Florida (which faces a play-in game against Kentucky on Saturday), UAB (yes, they lost to Memphis but have a 41 RPI, are 10-2 in their last 12 games and are 8-8 on the road), Virginia Tech (they have a worse RPI than Maryland but are better on the road and against the Top 50) and St. Mary's (they overcame the loss of Patty Mills and ended up getting a first-round bye in the West Coast conference).

The last four teams to get left out in this version: Kentucky (see Florida, plus they lost their last two), UNLV (fell to fourth in the Mountain West, which is not going to get four teams in), Rhode Island (they have played very well lately but a 2-5 record against the RPI top 50 works against them) and Maryland (their road record and RPI top 50 record are suspect compared to Virginia Tech).

East

1 UConn v 16 Play-In (Jacksonville/Alabama State)

2 Duke v 15 North Dakota State

3 Michigan State v 14 Buffalo

4 Xavier v 13 American

5 Clemson v 12 St. Mary’s

6 Butler v 11 San Diego State

7 UCLA v 10 South Carolina

8 Wisconsin v 9 Texas

South

1 North Carolina v 16 Radford

2 Oklahoma v 15 Robert Morris

3 Villanova v 14 Weber State

4 LSU v 13 VCU

5 Washington v 12 Siena

6 Utah v 11 Virginia Tech

7 Dayton v 10 Arizona

8 West Virginia v 9 Ohio State

Midwest

1 Pitt v 16 UT-Martin

2 Memphis v 15 Cornell

3 Missouri v 14 Binghamton

4 Florida State v 13 Western Kentucky

5 Illinois v 12 Creighton

6 Arizona State v 11 UAB

7 Syracuse v 10 Minnesota

8 Oklahoma State v 9 Tennessee

West

1 Kansas v 16 Morgan State

2 Louisville v 15 Cal State-Northridge

3 Wake Forest v 14 Stephen F. Austin

4 Marquette v 13 Davidson

5 Purdue v 12 Utah State

6 Gonzaga v 11 Florida

7 BYU v 10 Texas A&M

8 Cal v 9 Boston College