NCAA Tournament bracket forecast: UConn, Purdue, Arizona and Kansas on top

College Basketball

1 hour ago

As we enter 2023, the race toward March Madness is heating up around college basketball.

It’s been a year of surprises so far. Some teams from the preseason Top 25 are still trying to live up to expectations, while three schools remain unbeaten – UConn, Purdue and New Mexico.

Arizona (12-1) and Kansas (11-1) join the Huskies (14-0) and Boilermakers (12-0) as No. 1 seeds in this year’s first edition of men’s NCAA Tournament projections from FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy.

North Carolina, which was No. 1 in the AP’s preseason Top 25 poll, is an eight-seed in DeCourcy’s projections after stumbling to a 9-4 record and a No. 25 ranking. On the opposite of the coin, preseason No. 20 Alabama is up to a two-seed after an 11-2 start. Gonzaga (11-3), Tennessee (11-2) and Houston (13-1) round out the other two-seeds, with Arkansas (11-2), Texas (11-1), UCLA (11-2) and Baylor (10-2) as threes and West Virginia (10-2), Miami (12-1), Virginia (9-2) and New Mexico (13-0) at four. Mississippi State is a surprise five-seed after an 11-2 start.

The Big Ten leads the way with nine teams projected to go dancing, followed by the Big 12 (eight), SEC (seven), ACC (six) and Pac-12 (four).

As far as teams on the bubble, DeCourcy has Wake Forest (9-4), San Diego State (10-3), Utah (9-4) and Utah State (11-2) as the last four teams in, with Creighton (8-6), Iowa (8-4), Texas Tech (10-2) and LSU (12-1) barely on the outside, which represents quite a fall for preseason No. 9 Creighton. The next four out are USC (10-3), Pitt (9-4), Oklahoma State (8-4) and Michigan (7-4).