Hello, college basketball/Big Ten fans!

I'm happy to see the Big Ten Conference Tournament back in Chicago for the first time since 2019 (pre pandemic). The next men's bracket you should see from me should be on Selection Sunday.

Bids By Conference:

Big Ten: 9 (Purdue Boilermakers, Indiana Hoosiers, Northwestern Wildcats, Michigan State Spartans, Iowa Hawkeyes, Maryland Terrapins, Illinois Fighting Illini, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Penn State Nittany Lions)

Big 12: 8 (Kan, Tex, Bay, KSU, ISU, Tex, WV, OkSt)

SEC: 8 (Ala, Tenn, Mo, Ky, A&M, Ark, Aub, Miss St)

Big E: 5 (Marq, UConn, Xav, Creig, Prov)

Pac 12: 4 (UCLA, Ariz, USC, ASU)

MWC: 4 (SDSt, BSU, USU, Nev)

ACC: 3 (Va, Mia, Duke)

WCC: 2 (Gonz, St. M)

AAC: 2 (Hou, Mem)

One Bid: 23

Highest NET left out: North Texas (36), Liberty (43), Oregon (44), NC State (45), North Carolina (47)

Comments:

Purdue holds on to a #1 seed. UCLA and Texas likely are still in the running for a #1 seed (Baylor's 1st round loss likely eliminates them from #1 seed contention).

This bracket is tough because I am trying to compare resumes of teams with different resumes, some teams are done with their tournament, some are a round ahead, some are a round behind. There are still at this point more than 48 hours left to go for teams to move up and down in the bracket, maybe even in and out.

Utah State is finally in the bracket. Their NET (18) is just too high to ignore at this point. They have just one Quad 1 win and two Quad 4 losses and they are in the First Four so there is certainly plenty of chance for them to fall out, there are plenty of teams out of this field that can play their way into the field. Utah State can certainly solidify their chances by beating Boise State and getting a second Quad 1 win.

This bracket is really bad for the ACC as there are only three teams from the conference. The top four seeds made the conference SF's. NC State lost three times to Clemson with the last two not even close and fell behind them in the ACC pecking order. They also lost at home to Pittsburgh. Finally, they now have just one Quad 1 win. Pittsburgh's NET is 67 now. They have four Quad 1 wins but a Quad 4 loss at home to Florida State. Clemson right now is still alive in the ACC Tournament, has a NET of 51 and four Quad 1 wins but two Quad 4 losses. If the ACC gets a fourth team in the NCAAT, they should be that fourth team. They probably should root for Memphis to lose today although the problem is UCF is ranked 71 in the NET and it won't be a bad loss.

If Penn State does make the NCAA Tournament, they definitely should send a card to Illinois. PSU beat Illinois three times this season and they are two of PSU's six Quad 1 wins. Penn State hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 2011. I think they have a decent chance to get in, beat Northwestern and I'd dare the NCAA's to keep them out.

Arizona State won its way into this bracket by beating USC. They have six Quad 1 wins including not only USC but Arizona at Arizona. USC beat ASU twice as well as UCLA. Oregon isn't in yet but is still alive in the Pac 12.

Finally Florida Atlantic made the Conference USA final. They'd have a pretty strong at large case if they lose in the final so there's a good chance for a party crasher there.

Compare my bracket to other brackets across the internet at the Bracket Matrix.