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Virginia’s slide down the bracket continues after a 65-41 pounding at North Carolina, which continues to look like a top-line national-title contender. The Cavaliers have now lost three straight and five out of seven. Just a week ago, the selection committee had Virginia as a 3-seed.  Today, I have them as a six. Virginia will get three of their last four at home, but one of those is a return trip from the Tar Heels.

South Carolina is also falling fast down the bracket. Today’s loss at Vanderbilt did not drop the Gamecocks all the way off the eight line, but they are moving down it. South Carolina seems to be on a mission to try and give every middle-of-the-pack SEC team a quality win. The Gamecocks have lost three out of four and it does not get any easier. Florida is next.

Xavier is also free falling with three straight losses. The Musketeers have not been the same since Edmond Sumner was lost for the season with an injury, but things really got bad when star Trevon Bluiett went down.  He has not played the last two games. He is day-to-day, but today was not a good day without him. Marquette sliced up Xavier for a much-needed win for the Golden Eagles’ longshot tournament hopes.

Kentucky escaped Georgia with an 82-77 win for its fourth straight win. Unfortunately, the Wildcats are still stuck on the three-seed line because none of those were quality wins. It is hard to pick up quality wins in the SEC, especially if you are one of the few teams that others can try to beat to get those wins. The Wildcats will get another shot at Florida, so a win there should help some.

EARLY GAMES

Baylor and Kansas fought another tight battle, and Kansas did what Kansas always does -- win.  The Jayhawks are now one win or a loss from Baylor, Iowa State and West Virginia from clinching their record tying 13th consecutive conference championship.

Despite the loss, the Bears will remain on the top line of the bracket as the fourth overall seed.  Baylor’s profile is still better than North Carolina’s in just about every way.  Baylor has played a stronger schedule, has a better collection of wins, and a better collection of losses.  The Bears are also better on the road.  The only thing North Carolina has on Baylor is that it is hotter, which is not supposed to matter.  So, for now, Baylor stays as the last team on the top line.

The loss that had a bigger impact on the bracket was Florida State’s at Pittsburgh.  That dropped the Seminoles down one line to a 3-seed.  Florida State still has a very good resume, but the gap between teams in that part of the bracket is smaller, so one result can mean more.

It also helps Pittsburgh considerably.  The Panthers’ fragile at-large hopes got a big boost.  Make no mistake, despite wins over FSU, Virginia and at Maryland, they still have to get hot to have a chance.  Pitt is only 15-12, and that record isn’t good enough.  Three of their last four games are on the road, and they may have to win three of those last four.  That will require at least one big upset.

Purdue looks to have asserted itself as the team to beat in the Big Ten again with an 80-63 win at Mackey Arena over Michigan State.  That said, the last two times it looked like Purdue was the league front-runner, the Boilers lost their next game, at Iowa and at Nebraska respectively. Maybe that is good news for Penn State.  Purdue will visit the Nittany Lions on Tuesday.

The win did not move Purdue’s seed though.  It is hard to resume build in the Big Ten this season.

Rhode Island survived a scare at George Mason, and crawled onto the last spot on the bracket, which was vacated by Wake Forest after the Demon Deacons’ loss at Duke.  It is a bit of tough luck for Wake that such a loss can hurt them, but they just do not have a good enough record to be in the bracket right now.  That is largely due to the Demon Deacons’ 1-8 record vs the RPI top 50.