The battle for the overall No. 1 seed could get interesting as the season continues. Current No. 1 overall seed Purdue and No. 2 UConn have separated themselves from the field a little bit, although No. 3 seed Houston is not that far behind. The Huskies have better losses than Purdue, but the Boilermakers have an unmatched collection of top tier wins with five over teams in the top four seeds of the updated Bracketology NCAA Tournament bracket projection.
Houston, despite being No. 1 in the NET, is not yet getting the bigger wins in Big 12 play it needs to challenge for the top spot. The Cougars have eight Quad 1 games left in the regular season, including two this week. They are at Texas on Monday and at Kansas on Saturday.
Purdue and UConn each have five Quad 1 games left in the regular season, so the depth of quality in the Big 12 could give Houston the boost it needs to chase them down. Of course, these teams still have to win those games.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm's latest bracket and full field of 68 at the Bracketology hub.
Bracketology bits
- In my last column, I talked about how hard it will be to resume build in the ACC, but that is not the only conference with big gaps between the top and the middle. The Big Ten also has a problem with quality depth. That league has three teams on the top three lines of the bracket, but just three more in the field of 68, with none seeded higher than No. 9 , where Northwestern and Nebraska sit. If either of those two, but especially Northwestern, can figure out a way to win on the road, it could be a big boost to their seeds.
- Michigan State is the last team in the field in the updated bracket.
- Richmond is acting as a bid-stealer in this bracket. The Spiders beat Dayton 69-46 on Saturday to take over the top spot in the Atlantic 10 standings. The Flyers had been the only A-10 team in the bracket so far this season, but now needs an at-large spot, so Richmond ended up kicking Seton Hall out of the updated bracket.
