Thursday night started off with Kansas getting a scare from TCU, but holding on for a win in the second game in three games between these two teams. The Jayhawks remain the top of the No. 2 seeds. TCU’s seed is also unchanged. The Horned Frogs are still a No. 7 seed.
Michigan State lost again, this time at Ohio State. The Spartans have now lost seven of their last nine. Maybe they need more Indiana schools on their schedule. Their only wins in that stretch have come at home to Indiana and Purdue. The Spartans were not as fortunate as TCU. They dropped down to the No. 8 line.
They are joined there by Iowa, which avenged its loss at home to Michigan by winning Thursday on the road. Iowa is creeping up the bracket, but the Hawkeyes’ resume still does not match their metrics. The win over the Wolverines is their second Quad 1 win of the season so far and Iowa moved up from a No. 9 seed to a No. 8 seed.
Meanwhile, Michigan falls to 16-13 overall and is back out of the bracket and the climb back in has gotten much harder because the Wolverines are running out of games.
Oregon has a similar problem. The Ducks lost at Washington 78-67 in a game that was not as close as the score would indicate. The Ducks are now just 17-12 overall and 11-12 against the top three quadrants and are on the wrong side of the bubble.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
How conferences do against top teams
I mentioned Thursday how this has been an historically bad season for the ACC. Here is a stat that helps to show how bad things are going and why it is so hard to find tournament quality teams in this conference. The ACC has the worst record against Quad 1 opponents in non-conference play. Only the Pac-12 is even in their neighborhood.
Non-conference Quad 1 records
Big 12: 17-13 (57%)Big East: 13-15 (46%)Big 10: 10-14 (42%)SEC: 13-22 (37%)Pac-12: 7-18 (28%)ACC: 6-27 (22%)
The American Athletic Conference, the Atlantic 10 and the West Coast Conference (with or without Gonzaga) each have better non-conference records against Quad 1 opposition than the ACC.
There are five conference tournaments in action Friday, including semifinals of the Ohio Valley, which features Murray State and Belmont in action.
