The NCAA’s Early Look At The Top Sixteen

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee released its Top 16 teams Saturday and the good news is that Duke has solid wins over two of them: #1 overall seed Gonzaga and Kentucky, like Duke a 2 seed.

The NCAA’s model currently would put Duke in the West bracket where, if seeding held out, they would have a rematch with Gonzaga. Drew Timme is a known commodity but Chet Holmgren has improved quite a bit since that match up, although it’s worth mentioning that it’s come in West Coast Conference play and that’s not necessarily a great measuring stick.

So here’s the breakdown:

West:

1. Gonzaga
2. Duke
3. Illinois
4. Texas

Midwest

1. Auburn
2. Purdue
3. Texas Tech
4. UCLA

South

1. Arizona
2. Baylor
3. Tennessee
4. Providence

East

• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Villanova
• Wisconsin

We’d love to see a Texas Tech Purdue game. That would be so interesting. Arizona and Bayloer would be fun too and a Kansas-Kentucky rematch after UK humiliated the Jayhawks in Lawrence? Might pay extra.

Of course this is all preliminary and there’s still room for everyone to rise or fall so don’t get too excited yet - for instance, Florida just knocked off Auburn. But at least we have some idea of the current thinking.