On Tuesday, Marquette basketball picked up a season defining win against #13 Seton Hall. As such, it seems like a good time to start poking around and looking at how the various bracketology projections around the interwebs are treating the Golden Eagles.
Unfortunately, it seems that we haven’t quite reached Peak Bracketology quite yet this season, as we only have outlooks from SB Nation, ESPN, CBS, and, of course, the Bracket Matrix. They also all haven’t been updated since Marquette picked up the win over the Pirates. Oh well. Can’t win them all.
SB Nation (1/9): The morning before MU’s win over Seton Hall, Chris Dobbertean had the Golden Eagles in the tournament as a #10 seed facing #7 Florida State in Wichita in the first round. That spot is four lines clear from the First Four in Dayton, by the way. The Big East has seven teams in total in the SB Nation bracket: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#3), Butler (#6), Creighton (#7), and Providence (#10), with only the Friars coming in seeded lower than Marquette.
ESPN (1/11): The newest individual bracket of the group has Marquette sitting in one of the #10 seed spots, and also headed to Wichita. The opponent is different, though, as Joe Lunardi has arranged for a game between MU and #7 seeded Notre Dame. That sounds like a pile of fun, and to make it even better? If MU were to win this theoretical game, they would likely get a second round game against Oklahoma and Trae Young. The NCAA committee would be geniuses if they tried to put the Treys Amigos and Young on the court together. The only potential problem is that there would be no other points to be scored for the rest of the tournament. The Worldwide Leader has six Big East teams in the field, with Marquette staying clear of Dayton in the sixth and final spot. They’re joined by Villanova (#1), Xavier (#3), Seton Hall (#5), Butler (#9), and Creighton (#6).
CBS (1/5): Ok, so this bracket dating back to January 5th is a little on the stale side at this point. However, it’s fun to note that before Marquette gave Villanova fits, which is more than Xavier can say, and before MU dropped Seton Hall, Jerry Palm had Marquette as a #10 seed. I am a little curious on the seeding here, as one of the First Four games is for a #10 seed, and the other one is for a #11 seed. Shouldn’t both be for a #11? There shouldn’t be any #11 seeds that are better than a #10 seed headed to Dayton. ANYWAY, CBS has Marquette playing Tennessee in the first round, but the bracket doesn’t list a location for the game. There are five Big East teams in the bracket in addition to Marquette: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#4), Butler (#7), and Creighton (#9).
Bracket Matrix (1/8): It seems that the consensus of the internet is not terribly high on Marquette, at least before the Golden Eagles beat Seton Hall. As of Monday night, the Golden Eagles were only appearing in 22 of the 58 brackets that the Matrix was checking, and thus, they’re sitting as the fourth team out of the field there. It seems that the lack of inclusion is keeping them out more than their average. MU’s average seeding is 10.5, while Houston, the last team in, is at 10.53 in 30 brackets. However, it was purely about average, Alabama (9.88 in 26 brackets) would also be above the Golden Eagles, so it’s not all good news. With Marquette on the outside looking in, that leaves just five Big East teams in the field: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#4), Creighton (#7), and Butler (#8).