The teams below are displayed below on an S-curve, so they are ranked from left to right within each seeding line.  The italicized teams are ones predicted to win their conference tourney and gain an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.   The bold teams are ones who have already clinched an automatic bid to the respective postseason tournament (NCAA or NIT).  You will notice that some teams are listed both the NCAA and NIT brackets.  These are teams predicted to be automatic qualifiers to the NCAA tournament that would also earn at-large bids to the NIT tournament but not the NCAA tourney.  The reason these teams are displayed like this is to show how close those teams are to getting at-large bids in the NCAA tournament field. 

Also, just to clarify, my bracket projection is intended to project the NCAA Tournament field if it was chosen today.  Unlike some bracketologists, I am not trying to predict how each team will finish the season and then seed the teams based on that.  There is one slight exception to this rule, however, and that is that I have always chosen to award the projected automatic bid for each conference to my projected best team in that conference, and not the team who is currently leading the conference standings.   Given how unbalanced conference schedules are, it just seems like common sense to project that the best team in a conference will win the league championship, not the squad currently in first place.

Brad-ketology columns will be published at least twice a week (typically on Mondays and Fridays).  This bracket projection has been updated through all games played on Wednesday March 3rd.

NCAA Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Gonzaga, Michigan, Baylor, Illinois

2-seeds: Iowa, Ohio State, Alabama, Kansas

3-seeds: Houston, West Virginia, Villanova, Florida State

4-seeds: Virginia, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Purdue

5-seeds: Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Texas, Colorado

6-seeds: Oklahoma, Creighton, Southern Cal, Missouri

7-seeds: Brigham Young, Wisconsin, Florida, Clemson

8-seeds: Virginia Tech, LSU, San Diego State, Maryland

9-seeds: Rutgers, UConn, Loyola-IL, Oregon

10-seeds: UCLA, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Louisville

11-seeds: Colorado State, St. Bonaventure, Seton Hall, Xavier

12-seeds: VCU, Boise State, Saint Louis, Drake Western Kentucky, UC Santa Barbara

13-seeds: Winthrop, Toledo, Colgate, Navy, Liberty

14-seeds: Belmont, Abilene Christian, UNC Greensboro, South Dakota State

15-seeds: Siena, UMBC, James Madison, Southern Utah

16-seeds: Grand Canyon, Texas State, Wagner, Cleveland State, Prairie View, North Carolina A & T

NIT Tourney Field:

1-seeds: Duke, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Utah State

2-seeds: Syracuse, Indiana, Wichita State, Richmond

3-seeds: Stanford, Minnesota, SMU, Memphis

4-seeds: NC State, Western Kentucky, St. John’s, UC Santa Barbara

Ranking of Other Postseason Contenders: Winthrop, Penn State, Toledo, St. Mary’s, Mississippi State, Providence, Colgate, Navy, Davidson, North Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, Liberty, Marshall, Wright State