Saturday can’t come soon enough.
And not just because Saturdays are the marquee day of the week when it comes to relentless slates of all-out college hoop-dom. (Though, that too).
Astute observers of the calendar may realize that this coming Saturday is the first Saturday after the Super Bowl, and that means that the selection committee’s annual top-16 preview is finally on the horizon.
And it comes at a good time.
This last Saturday of hoops seemed to screw things up in the bracket more than usual; I made a lot of pretty wacky changes that, in a vacuum, don’t make much sense—Utah and New Mexico dropping from 8-seeds to Last Four In after one loss, Northwestern falling from an 8 to a 10 despite actually winning on Sunday, the very bubbly résumés of Florida, Texas A&M, and Michigan State all suddenly looking a lot better, and much more.
In fact, most of the bubble is actually looking to be in pretty decent shape for once. Gonzaga was once an afterthought, and after just one win (granted, a résumé-defining win at Kentucky), they’ve sprung all the way up to first team out, and would be in currently had Dayton not lost to VCU on Friday night, handing the Atlantic 10 automatic bid back to Richmond for the time being.
But the bubble is just the tip of the iceberg. Truly, the confusion starts right at the top: Should Houston or UConn be the #2 overall? Who deserves to be on the 3-seed line after Iowa State and Baylor? Will Wisconsin still hold on to a 4-seed with this recent four-game skid?
Getting some sort of clarity—any clarity at all—will help a ton… at least for a few hours until Saturday’s games lay waste to any projections that came before. Oh, well.
We have Saturday to look forward to, but we also have a more established Bauertology schedule as well! Every week, until the final week of conference tournaments leading up to Selection Sunday, we’re going to follow this strict weekly regimen (to the best of my ability) for Bauertology content:
- Mondays: Bauertology
- Wednesdays: Bauer’s Bubble Watch (starting this Wednesday!)
- Fridays: Bauertology
I’ll also put together my official guess for the top-16 preview this Saturday, though more likely than not it’ll just be my top four seed lines from the Friday bracket.
We’re a month and some change out from the big day, people! Get excited.
