Monday means a new bracket projection is posted and the No. 1 seeds remain unchanged.  

No. 2 seeds Michigan State and Kansas lost over the weekend, but held their seeds for now.  The Jayhawks lost on Saturday at fellow No. 2 seed Kentucky, which is starting to look more and more like the team most of us thought they would be at the start of the season.

Michigan State was dismantled by Purdue in the first half on Sunday at Mackey Arena.  The Spartans rallied to make a game of it late, but the Boilermakers held on for a 73-63 win.  It was a signature win for Purdue, which has now won eight of its last night games.  The only loss in that stretch was to the Spartans in East Lansing, Michigan.

Part of the reason Michigan State and Kansas are holding their spots on the No. 2 line for now is that they still lead everyone in the number of Quadrant 1 wins with eight each.  The next closest is Duke, which has six.

Bracketology top seeds

Seed

South

East

Midwest

West

No. 1
Tennessee
Michigan
Duke
Virginia
No. 2
Kansas
Kentucky
Michigan St.
Gonzaga

[Check out Palm's full bracket with all 68 seeds and the first four four teams out on our Bracketology page]

Does anyone want to stay in the field?

Most of the action this week is at the bottom of the bracket, where it seems everyone spent this weekend trying to play their way out of the field.

Indiana is the most prominent example of this.  The Hoosiers are tanking as if they are playing for a No. 1 draft pick, but they still have a spot in the field.  That happened thanks to Bowling Green losing at Miami-Ohio.  The Falcons had been in the bracket as the leader of the MAC, leaving Buffalo in the field as an at-large team.  Now, the two are tied for the lead, but Buffalo is higher ranked in the NET, so the Bulls are back as the designated automatic qualifier from the MAC.

The Hoosiers, coming off a 23-point loss at home to Michigan on Friday, are in that final spot in the field.

Teams like Florida and Butler are close, but neither team has a good enough record to actually be in the bracket.  The selection committee has never given an at-large bid to a team less than four games above .500, so I do not put such teams in the field.

Other teams are falling on hard times too.  

  • Nebraska has lost five out of its last seven and has now lost one of its star players for the season.  Senior Isaac Copeland suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the second half of the loss to Ohio State on Saturday and the already thin Cornhuskers will have to soldier on without their second-leading scorer.  The real shame of this injury is how it came about.  Copeland started a move to the basket around the 3-point line, but was whistled for traveling as he started the drive.  He continued to the basket anyway and landed awkwardly, long after the whistle stopped play.
  • Seton Hall has lost five out of six after getting drilled at Villanova on Sunday.  Among the Pirates losses are home-and-home with DePaul and one at Providence.  Seton Hall's spot in the bracket is in serious danger.
  • The only new team in the bracket, and the only one near the bottom that seems to be trying to play its way in, is Baylor, which beat Alabama on Saturday in the SEC-Big 12 challenge.  The Bears are still trying to make up for Quadrant 4 home losses in non-conference play to Texas Southern and Stephen F. Austin.