HHS Top 25: Breaking Down the NCAA Tournament Bracket
It’s safe to say that Selection Monday didn’t go according to plan. ESPN mistakenly released its women’s NCAA tournament bracket during a 3 p.m. “Bracketology” segment on the men’s tournament on ESPNU. In response to the error, the network hurriedly moved its Selection Show up from 7 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET, a change that received some strong reactions on social media.
Despite the miscue, the show will go on! The 2019 NCAA tournament will start at 12 p.m. ET on Friday, March 22 on ESPN2, and all of our top 25 teams — plus 39 others — will compete for a national championship. Here is the top-25 ballot we submitted to the STI/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll for Week 19. This week’s poll covered games played from Tuesday, March 12 through Monday, March 18. Movement up or down from our Week 18 ballot is denoted in parentheses.
1. Baylor
2. Notre Dame
3. UConn
4. Mississippi State
5. Oregon
6. Louisville
7. Stanford
8. Iowa
9. Oregon State
10. North Carolina State
11. Maryland
12. Miami (FL) (↑2)
13. Iowa State (↑2)
14. Marquette (↓2)
15. Gonzaga (↓2)
16. Syracuse
17. Arizona State
18. Texas A&M (↑1)
19. Drake (↓1)
20. South Carolina
21. Texas
22. Florida State
23. South Dakota State (↑1)
24. South Dakota (↓1)
25. Kentucky
Most of the top-25 teams were idle this week after their conference tournaments wrapped up. South Dakota State was the only team that moved up after playing this week, as the Jackrabbits defeated archrival South Dakota for the Summit League tournament title. Miami, Iowa State, and Texas A&M, the other teams that rose on our ballot this week, were all idle. Marquette, Gonzaga, Drake, and South Dakota all lost in the championship game of their respective conference tournaments and dropped one or two spots on our ballot as a result.
Now that the NCAA tournament bracket is set, let’s take a look at where the teams on our top-25 ballot were placed. The chart below sorts our top-25 teams by regional, in descending order of seed. The number in parentheses following the team’s name is its ranking on our top-25 ballot.
Each region has at least five teams that were ranked in our top-25 this week. Portland has the most ranked teams, with South Dakota State, Texas, and South Dakota securing the sixth through eighth seeds, respectively. Greensboro’s top six seeds are all ranked, and Drake is also slotted into that region as a 10-seed despite being ranked No. 19 on our ballot. We have included the Bulldogs pretty consistently in our top-25 throughout the season, so by our estimation (and a few others’) they are badly underseeded.
A few other teams that are seeded worse than their ranking in our top-25 would suggest are UConn (a two-seed, our No. 3 team), Oregon State (a four-seed, our No. 9 team), Marquette (a 5-seed, our No. 14 team), and South Dakota (an 8-seed, our No. 24 team). Keep an eye on these teams to see whether they can pull an upset or two and outperform their seed.
More changes to our top-25 are surely in store next week, as the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament will be complete. After all, it’s not called “March Madness” for nothing! Keep checking the Hoopfeed website for the STI/Hoopfeed Top 25 Poll through the end of the season, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for coverage of our top 25, NCAA tournament upsets, WNBA Draft predictions, and so much more.
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