It’s Selection Sunday For Marquette Men’s Basketball!

Hello and welcome to Selection Sunday 2022!

Later today, we’re going to find out exactly which 68 teams are in the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball national championship tournament. Even better than that, we can guarantee that we are going to hear Greg Gumbel call out Marquette’s name at some point during the announcement process.

I think that is pretty good and cool.

Here’s what Marquette’s general NCAA selection profile looks like this morning, although the committee has all but locked the 68 teams in the field already. Shouts to WarrenNolan.com for the team sheets with all the non-NET info.

Record: 19-12, 11-8 Big East
KenPom: #45
KPI: #37
BPI: #54
Strength of Record: #42
Sagarin: #48
NET: #43

NET Record Breakdown

Quadrant 1: 5-7
Quadrant 2: 5-5
Quadrant 3: 4-0
Quadrant 4: 5-0

Bracket Matrix ran an update at some point on Saturday, with a note that “majority of brackets submitted prior to 3/12 games” for the most recent iteration as I check it on Sunday morning. With 125 projections included in the Matrix right now, Marquette appears on all 125 of them, and averages out at 9.09. That puts the Golden Eagles as the third #9 seed in the bracket alongside North Carolina, Creighton, and Iowa State, although the Bluejays are only in 124 of the projections.

A #9 seed would mean a first round game against a #8 seed. Right now, Bracket Matrix shows that group as Boise State, San Diego State, and TCU as options for Marquette’s opponent. Yes, that’s only three teams, as Seton Hall is the fourth #8 seed. Because they share a conference, Marquette and Seton Hall can’t be bracketed against each other in the first round.

That is the average, of course. Along the way through the 125 projections, Marquette is being dropped in anywhere from #7 to #12. It is the committee’s right to bump teams a line one way or the other for bracketing purposes. With Seton Hall and Creighton in the same orbit as Marquette, it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing in the world for one of the three to get nudged out of the way just to avoid an 8/9 game pairing if need be.

In terms of the Big East in general, Bracket Matrix shows Marquette as one of six teams in the conference to get into the field: Villanova at #2, Providence at #4, and Connecticut at #5 along with SHU, CU, and MU at their previously mentioned spots. Xavier is currently sitting as the Matrix’s First Team Out. The Musketeers appear on just 72 projections as of yesterday, and they averaged out at 11.74 on the ones that they appeared on at the time. SMU is the Last Team In the field here with 86 appearances and an average of 11.69. It would certainly seem that Xavier’s inclusion will come down to the opinions of the people in the selection committee room more than anything else......

..... but we can’t ignore that Bracket Matrix’s Second Team Out right now is Texas A&M, and the Aggies play in the SEC Championship game later today. Xavier fans (and Big East fans who like the league getting another NCAA tournament share) are going to be sweating out the Atlantic 10 championship game as well. Davidson is most likely in the field (#10 in Bracket Matrix before advancing to the A-10 title game), but Richmond didn’t appear on a single bracket on Saturday. The Spiders could push a team out of the field, and that team absolutely could be Xavier.

2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show

Date: Sunday, March 13, 2022
Time: 5pm Central
Television: CBS
Streaming: March Madness Live