Your Marquette Basketball Bracketology Outlook: January 25, 2018

Ok, so no one is super excited about Marquette‘s 19 point loss to Xavier on Wednesday night. The team shot poorly and gave up a whole bunch of buckets seemingly whenever the Musketeers wanted to score. It wasn’t great, although it’s not going to end the season or anything.

In fact, in terms of MU’s bracketology future and their progression to the NCAA tournament, a road loss to a team as good as Xavier is essentially neutral. No one is going to hold losing to a top three seed caliber team against anyone when it comes time to hand out automatic bids. Keep that in mind as we take a swing through the various recent bracket projections, most of which were published before the Xavier game.

SB Nation (1/24): I’m a company man if nothing else, so we start off with the official outlook from our overlords. Chris Dobbertean drops the Golden Eagles into his bracket as a #8 seed, giving them a first round game in Detroit against Alabama. For those of you who have joined the Marquette family after Buzz Williams was hired, us older types are not excited about seeing the Tide in the first round again. An 8/9 game means a likely second round matchup with a #1 seed, which in this case would be Purdue. I’d be fine with seeing a rematch of the second game of the season. There are six other Big East teams in the field here: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#3), Seton Hall (#4), Creighton (#6), Butler (#9), and Providence (#11), with the Friars just barely avoiding Dayton by one spot.

ESPN (1/25): Joe Lunardi is a quick guy, and he has a brand new bracket up on Thursday morning, which does take MU’s loss to Xavier into account. He has them as a #10 seed, facing off with #7 Rhode Island, and like Dobbertean’s bracket, the game is in Detroit. The URI/MU winner would advance to a second round game most likely against #2 Michigan State, which would decidedly be a road game for either team. There are six other Big East teams in the field here: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#6), Creighton (#6), Butler (#9), and Providence (#10), with the Friars sitting four spots clear of the First Four. With PC and MU holding the same seed here, would you rather play Rhody or TCU, the opponent assigned to the Friars?

CBS (1/22): That 8/9 game seems like it might be getting awfully popular here, as Jerry Palm slots the Golden Eagles in as a #9 seed. This means a first round game against #8 Florida State, and again, a likely second round game against Purdue. Odds are that would be in Detroit, but Palm doesn’t include locations in his projection. There are six other Big East teams in the field here: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#6), Creighton (#8), Butler (#8), and Providence (#10), with the Friars landing five clear from an early trip to Dayton.

Sports Illustrated (1/22): Michael Beller and his bosses continue on their horrible trajectory of merely placing a graphic of their bracket into the page instead of creating a system that’s, y’know, searchable. Now I have to read the whole dumb thing. ANYWAY, Marquette is a #10 seed here, earning themselves a first round game against #7 Louisville. That actually sounds like a ton of fun. Worst case scenario is we end up with another reason to hate UL, and that’s never a bad way to go about things. The winner there would advance to a (likely) second round game against #2 Kansas, which means this pod is likely in Wichita. There are six other Big East teams in the field here: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#5), Creighton (#5), Butler (#8), and Providence (#11).

NBC Sports (1/22): Remember when I asked if you would rather see Marquette play TCU instead of Rhode Island? Well, that question becomes more important here, as Dave Ommen places the Golden Eagles as a #9 seed against the #8 seeded Horned Frogs. That game would be out in Los Angeles, and would likely mean a second round game against #1 Duke. I’m kind of in favor of this happening, because I’m fascinated by the committee trying like hell to push Steve Wojciechowski into a game against Mike Krzyzewski, as that was MU’s likely second round foe last year. There are six other Big East teams in the field here: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#6), Creighton (#7), Providence (#8), and Butler (#10). Here it’s the Bulldogs coming the closest to the First Four, but ending up four spots clear.

Bracket Matrix (1/23, 8:25pm): While things have been pretty rosy so far, when you expand the view of the field far enough, Marquette’s not that popular. The matrix slots the Golden Eagles in as a #11 seed with an average of 10.36 while appearing in 86 of the 91 brackets. This would put MU two spots clear of the First Four, by the way. A #11 seed means a #6 seed in the first round, which would be Wichita State, Kentucky, TCU, or Rhode Island. Given that grouping, the Shockers would have to be skipped due to the “no first round rematches” rule. Kind of really like getting another crack at the Wildcats, as Marquette has not lost to Kentucky since 1975. There are six other Big East teams in the field here: Villanova (#1), Xavier (#2), Seton Hall (#5), Creighton (#7), Butler (#9), and Providence (#10), with the Friars coming in two spots ahead of Marquette.