SB Nation’s latest bracket for the NCAA Tournament has Ohio State, Kansas, Pitt and Notre Dame as top seeds, with Duke, Purdue, Florida and San Diego State taking the No. 2 spots. West Virginia takes a No. 5 seed. Penn State is listed as the last of the “first four out,” suggesting that our own Adam Bittner may be right that the Nittany Lions can sneak into March Madness with a good run in the Big Ten Tournament, which begins tomorrow.
Among Big East teams, SB Nation notes that Marquette’s victory over Providence yesterday solidifies its status, while Villanova is still a good bet despite the Wildcats’ end-of-season collapse, which culminated with a first-round loss to lowly South Florida in the Big East Tournament. That would mean 11 Big East teams are in (Pitt, Notre Dame, Louisville, Syracuse, St. Johns, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Georgetown, Connecticut, Villanova and Marquette), which seems about right. The rest of the Big East tournament will determine exactly where those 11 teams end up in the bracket