🏀 🏆 BRACKETOLOGY 2024-2025 : The brackets will be announced at 6 ET on CBS

It is January still, right. 🤷‍♂️
I can't remember where I read the report. There's a good chance I linked it here, somewhere. Anywho ...

Statistically, when your major conferences begin the heart of their conference play, a team ranked in the top 12 of the NET is your eventual national champion. Considering we have three times as many basketball teams to follow (championship contending teams, not total, though that's true as well) it's about like following the top four in football: here, the top 12 or so in basketball.

And yes, January. There are story lines everywhere.

Take @Brandon Van de Graaff and the death wish for Johni. Flagg, with Duke. ISU has a great defense. Hunter Dickinson is starting to make his name known again at Kansas. I like seeing the improvement for the Tide on the boards; Sparty REALLY hits them. Did you see what the Illini did to the Ducks? Dayum.

We're about three quarters of the way through and you can get a good idea of what teams are putting on the court this season.
 

Another Top 25 win on the road for Alabama basketball means another week of moving up in the seeding projections for the NCAA Tournament.

Despite its No. 4 ranking in the polls, the Crimson Tide came into Starkville as the underdog before fighting for an 88-84 win over No. 13 Mississippi State.

Duke fell from the No. 2 overall seed in the latest edition of Joe Lunardi's "Bracketology" report for ESPN after shaky wins against NC State and Wake Forest. The Blue Devils' move to No. 3 overall made room for Alabama (18-3, 7-1 SEC) to take over as No. 2, chasing down No. 1 Auburn.

As it stands, Alabama is the No. 1 seed for the Midwest region, which includes second-seed and No. 8 overall Marquette, third-seed and No. 9 Purdue and No. 16 Wisconsin as the fourth-seed.

Where is Alabama basketball in latest bracket projections after Mississippi State?



In the South region, Auburn is seeded first above No. 2 seed and sixth-ranked Houston, No. 3 seed and 10th overall Kentucky, with No. 14 overall Oregon as the No. 4 seed.

Prior to its one-seed projection following Kentucky, Alabama was the two-seed of the Midwest region behind one-seed Iowa State, which has since moved to the No. 1 seed of the West region.
 
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J. Lunardi updated his brackets today.



Last summer, it was suggested that this year's "real" Iron Bowl wouldn't take place on the gridiron, but on the hardwood. As it turns out, neither Auburn nor Alabama made the College Football Playoff. But with six weeks to go in college basketball's regular season, the top two teams in Bracketology are -- wait for it -- Auburn and Alabama. The Tigers have been No. 1 overall since winning the Maui Invitational, and after surviving an injury that sidelined Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome, they are rolling toward the most Quadrant 1 wins in the history of the NET. Meanwhile, the Tide have won 12 of 13 -- with all but three of the 12 wins in either Q1 or Q2 -- and most recently escaped Mississippi State in Starkville to slide ahead of Duke on the seed list. In two weeks, our Yellowhammer State protagonists will collide for the first of what could be four meetings. Can you imagine? In addition to their Feb. 15 (Tuscaloosa) and March 8 (Auburn) dates, we could have Iron Bowl III at the SEC tournament, then Iron Bowl IV in the Final Four. Just don't ask me which team is better. If we're lucky, there will be more than enough chances to find out.
 
This has nothing to do with Bracketology but this thread seems like the best place for the thought.

Does the AP write their own story this week with their votes? A #1 vs #2 game ...

I'm at a lock-in with my son's baseball team and they are mostly Tennessee fans (Chattanooga), and they were all saying the same last night as we watched Auburn go down and then Duke. They were actually pulling for us to have that possibility line up.
 
I'm at a lock-in with my son's baseball team and they are mostly Tennessee fans (Chattanooga), and they were all saying the same last night as we watched Auburn go down and then Duke. They were actually pulling for us to have that possibility line up.
If I were voting I can't say I'd shuffle the top three even with the losses they took yesterday. Auburn still has a better resume (Q1 wins to start.) Duke doesn't have the wins Bama does in Q1 (five versus six) and only has two losses in Q1 play: both losses are on neutral courts.

That home loss to Ole Miss ... I'd probably vote Bama #3 this week.

NOW, if these schedules remain the same with W's and L's? Bama jumps Duke. The Blue Devils have Q2 and Q3 teams representing over two-thirds of their remaining schedule. Their toughest game is against the Illini (barely in the top twenty five right now.)
 


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