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

Hello and welcome to Selection Sunday 2023!

Later today, we’re going to find out exactly which 68 teams are in the 2023 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. Last year, we just knew that the Golden Eagles had a resume that was good enough to get in. This year, it’s a very real guarantee, as Marquette beat Xavier in the Big East tournament championship game on Saturday night to secure the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA field.

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: 28-6, 17-3 Big East
KenPom: #12
KPI: #16
BPI: #13
Strength of Record: #7
Sagarin: #15
NET: #12

NET Record Breakdown

Quadrant 1: 7-5
Quadrant 2: 6-0
Quadrant 3: 7-1
Quadrant 4: 8-0

As I look at it on Sunday morning, Bracket Matrix has run what they’re calling a “Partial Update” for March 12th. I presume that means that it’s as many new brackets as they can find since the clock kicked over to Sunday. So, keeping in mind that some of the 103 projections have included MU’s Saturday night win over Xavier and some have not, the Golden Eagles are currently averaging out as the best #3 seed in the field with an average of 2.72. That sounds an awful lot like 75% #3 seeds and 25% #2 seeds to me. Whether that’s because most of the brackets haven’t updated yet on Sunday, I can’t say for certain.

Is the healthiest thing to do to believe Marquette will be a #3 seed and be surprised and elated to be a #2 seed? Probably!

The #2 seeds according to Bracket Matrix right now are UCLA, Texas, Arizona, and Baylor, while the other #3 seeds are Gonzaga, Kansas State, and Connecticut. If MU sticks as a #3, that would mean a first round game against a #14 seed like Furman, UC Santa Barbara, Kennesaw State, or Grand Canyon. Grabbing a #2 seed would mean a #15 seed in the first round, and Bracket Matrix has those as Colgate, Montana State, Vermont, and UNC Asheville.

Elsewhere in the Big East, we already noted UConn in the #3 seed section. Xavier sits as a #4 seed according to Bracket Matrix’s average on Sunday morning, while Creighton is at #7 and Providence is the best #11 seed. While the Friars are sitting just six spots clear of the cut line and two spots clear of a First Four appearance here, they’re not going to be sweating any of the final tournament championship games on Sunday. The Ivy League will be a one bid league this season, and both teams in the SEC, AAC, and Big Ten title games are safely in the field. I suppose there’s some question as to whether or not VCU could get into the field as an at-large if they lose to Dayton in the Atlantic 10 title game as the Matrix currently shows them as the third best #12 seed, but I suspect that losing to the Flyers — currently #74 in the NET — wouldn’t be good for their resume. The point of the story is that the NCAA field of 68 is effectively locked as the committee begins the bracketing on Sunday morning, so Providence should feel pretty safe no matter what the Sunday results are.

2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show

Date: Sunday, March 12, 2023
Time: 5pm Central
Television: CBS
Streaming: March Madness Live