WKU Basketball: Bracketology Roundup 12/28/20
The 2020–21 WKU basketball season has reached the part of the calendar where conference play is about to start. After a 7–2 start to the season, it’s time to check-in and see where the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers currently stand in the Bracketology projections.
WKU has built a solid at-large resume with several Top 100 level wins (Alabama, Memphis, Rhode Island) and has also avoided bad losses thus far. While that normally would add up to an at-large resume, several computers like Marshall better (Kenpom, Haslametrics) and they have the Herd slotted in CUSA’s auto bid spot despite having a much worse resume than the Hilltoppers.
Here are your Bracketology projections for WKU across the internet on December 28th, 2020.
ESPN- 11 Seed
Delphi Bracketology- 12 Seed
Making The Madness- 11 Seed
131 Sports- 12 Seed
Best Damn Bracket Period- 12 Seed
Bracket Bingo- Out of the field
Bracket Odds- Out of the field
Stadium- 12 Seed
DRatings- 12 Seed
EvanMiya CBB Analytics- Out of Field
Haslametrics- Out of Field
TR Brackets- Out of Field
Ravi’s Website- 11 Seed
Projection Sports- 12 Seed
Fox College Hoops- Out of the Field
The Stats Guru- 12 Seed
Shout out to Bracket Matrix for having a centralized place to find the predictions. The usual suspects of CBS Sports, Inside the Hall, Andy Katz, and others haven’t come out with weekly updates yet. Hopefully, that changes after the first of the year. Bubble Watch pieces should also start coming out towards the end of January.
As you can tell, the Hilltoppers should get a very solid seed should they get into the field (11–12 seed range). There are two things holding the Toppers back at the moment. The first thing is several of their big wins (Northern Iowa, Memphis, Rhode Island) aren’t living up to their preseason hype. If these teams don’t turn it around then marquee wins become Quad 2 or Quad 3 wins in the NET Rankings. That will definitely hurt the Hilltoppers resume with so few quality opponents remaining (Marshall, North Texas, La Tech & ODU only in KenPom top 125)
The second thing is WKU’s efficiency ratings. They need to start winning games by larger margins. The combination of slim margins and high turnovers are keeping the Hilltoppers ratings in the 80s. These ratings are a big part of the formula that determines the NET Rankings. WKU can’t just squeak out wins in CUSA they need to start putting together more impressive performances.
The Hilltoppers may be able to avoid Frisco or bust if they can navigate the 18 games CUSA schedule with only 1–3 more losses. Stay tuned as we’ll periodically update the projections between now and March as the Hilltoppers look to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.
