Men's Bracketology-- 02/05/2024

It has been a while since actual podcasts or even a newsletter have been out. I have been super busy being someone who has a little sister with autism, and after my mother needed assistance after almost breaking her hand, I have been going through a lot as Elmo said is everything okay, I will say… I guess so for the most part.

Enough of that, let’s get into some March Madness, shall we?

This week, I thought I would spice things up with my version of the first official NCAA Division I men’s basketball bracketology for you this Saturday morning.

These teams have been randomly selected and curated based on knowledge and strength of schedule.

I am not Joe Lunardi or even a professional, just a sports fan giving you this information. I may have copied some of these from other bracketologists and student sportscasters alike, but it will be well worth it as I try to break down the bracket one bite at a time and talk about a few Cinderella picks as of February 3, 2024.

For the first part of this bracket, let’s just say that this list will not shock me much. If it was March 17, 2024, I would love to see Butler advance against Crieghton but the team is so good that I didn’t want to have to do that.

St. John’s I moved up because (if you read my newsletter in December) I think Rick Pitino has a winning formula put together and the team gets better and better every time I watch them.

I may have put Utah State on this list twice, which is my mistake as I was running out of both time and room before publishing this article and I didn’t realize, it was the same game as last year (ignore that), but after the team’s 81-67 loss to San Diego State on Saturday, I will keep Utah State at their original seed.

Let’s go to the bottom half of the left bracket.

Again this is where Utah State will remain at number six, but I have two new additions to this half of the bracket. The San Francisco Dons and the Kansas State Wildcats.

Do Not sleep on Mongolian Mike and do not sleep on this awakened team. This is a special group of high fliers and post-up players. Mongolian Mike means more than just college basketball, he means way more to the Mongolian community. The group is special as I have happened to know his family through the Twitter page I run representing the Mongolian heritage and name.

As for Tennessee, I am moving them to the number-one seed in this early Bracketology over North Carolina, who will now remain as another one seed, but for a different region. It is harder than fiction to see what Tennessee is doing and not put them into the top spot as a preliminary number-one seed for now. The Kentucky game where you had two big men score 26 points have even better ball handling and speed to beat the Wildcats 103-92, in a game that could have turned into an overtime thriller, Tennessee is better than they were last year, and even the year before that. This team is impressive and cannot wait to see what they can do come tournament time.

The biggest shocker of this bracket could be Alabama or even Texas A&M, but the big shock of them all could be the Florida Atlantic (who I moved down) and Indiana State, the next big Cinderella story.

The Indiana State Sycamores are an early Cinderella favorite for many bracketologists across the country, and I don’t blame them. It might be speed, it might be their three-point and defensive machine in Robbie Avila, the top player in every one of the mid-major conferences, but gosh, this team will run you from Jasper to Martinsville with their defensive stops.

In their game against Bradley, I was deeply impressed by how they defended Connor Hickman, one of the top players in all of the Arch. This was even more impressive given that their three-point game shut out every team they faced.

Yes, Avila is a generational talent with amazing skills to show forth but give another shoutout to another big name no one has talked about… Ryan Conwell.

The prodigy of Indianapolis, Conwell previously played at the University of South Florida and did not get much playing time for the Bulls last season. That is the complete opposite since he has arrived at ISU. He is just a ball hog and an amazing defensive talent. Watch out for Avila and Conwell to, for now, upset

Dayton is the best pick for this bracket to make it the farthest besides one other team, who I added for a reason, and that is because Nebraska and Oklahoma are two good teams with talented offenses. For the Oklahoma team, I had to debate whether or not I wanted to pair Nebraska with Texas because of how good they are doing or Nebraska with a school like Crieghton with an 8-9 ranking in this bracket.

I chose this because Nebraska is a team that can and will win the Big Ten title this year led by the great Keisei Tominga who has been a rockstar for the last four years. They are the newest Republican broadcast channel with all the big burger commercials and an airing of conservative values. They are red and they are hot, but they could slip through the cracks and lose their positioning which we will need to watch once they lose to both a ranked Illinois and a ranked Wisconsin team.

The remainder of their schedule seems like a breeze with unranked opponents ranked fourth or less including an NIT-sealing matchup for Indiana on February 21. I am excited but scared about Nebraska’s schedule. It’s a hit or it’s a missed opportunity for the Cornhuskers to make their first tournament the 2013-14 season.

Our next bracketology for men’s basketball will be next Monday until March 17. Women’s basketball will be every Sunday until tournament time, and to stay up to date on the NCAA, NJCAA, and NAIA (the delay was due to school and work, it’s been a lot so I apologize for that), listen to our podcast anywhere you get your podcasts as we are heading closer to tournament time.