Where the bracketologists have Texas projected for the NCAA tournament a week from Selection Sunday
AUSTIN (KXAN) — There's an agreement among college basketball pundits who project the NCAA men's basketball tournament field that the Texas Longhorns are in the middle of the pack.
Perhaps a couple of wins in the Big 12 Conference tournament could move them up a line, but as of right now, fans should expect that the Longhorns will open the national tournament with either an eight or a nine beside their name on the bracket.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi, NCAA.com's Andy Katz, Fox Sports' Mike DeCourcy and the Sporting News' Bill Bender all have the Longhorns projected to snag a No. 8 seed when Selection Sunday rolls around March 17. CBS Sports' Jerry Palm has the Longhorns slotted as a No. 9 seed.
Lunardi and Katz go as far as projecting specific matchups and regions the teams will play in, and they've got identical locations and opponents for the Longhorns. Both think they'll end up in the West Region and face ninth-seeded Nebraska in the opening round with a potential second-round matchup against top-seeded Tennessee and former Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes.
Palm, meanwhile, goes to those lengths and thinks the Longhorns will take on Gonzaga with the same potential second-round matchup with the Volunteers.
MORE THAN THE SCORE: Stay up to date on sports stories like these, and sign up for our More than the Score sports newsletter at kxan.com/newsletters
DeCourcy lists his seeding in order of their overall seed with Texas coming in at No. 32, pegging them as the fourth 8-seed. In a 64-team tournament, the Nos. 32 and 33 seeds meet in the first game and DeCourcy has Northwestern in at No. 33.
How did those guys get to this point? They use the same resources as the selection committee, including the NET rankings that measure how efficient a team is against the strength of their schedule. NET is an acronym for NCAA Evaluation Tool. It also breaks down records into quadrants, assigning wins and losses to teams in distinct areas of the NET rankings. If you beat a team that has a high NET in Quadrant 1, that improves your chances of a better seed. If you lose to teams with low NET in Quadrant 3 or 4, that hurts your chances.
There's also the classic "eye test" done through observation and evaluation — and that's where things can get interesting.