When the NCAA’s Division I Men’s Basketball Committee released a preview of the top 16 teams in the 2023 NCAA Tournament on Feb. 18, it was Alabama, Houston, Purdue and Kansas that were the No. 1. While all four teams still have a compelling case to be included in the top seed line entering the selection on Sunday, others have also joined the debate.
Marquette is 28-6 after winning the Big East Tournament and regular season titles, and UCLA at 29-5 has been one of the hottest teams in the country over the past three months. Additionally, Texas (26-8) toppled Kansas (17-7) in Saturday’s Big 12 Tournament title game to make their case for a No. 1 seed after finishing behind the Jayhawks in the standings. of the Big 12 regular season. Still, KU has 17 wins in Quadrant 1, a nationally unmatched tally.
So who will end up on the #1 line when the March Madness 2023 bracket is revealed? We’ll find out when the full 68 field is revealed Sunday at 6 p.m. ET during the 2022 NCAA Tournament Selection Show Live on CBS.
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Keep reading for the best seed projections from CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm, as well as a breakdown of how our college basketball experts would vote if they were on the committee.
NCAA Tournament Bracketology Screening
Here’s how Palm projected the top four seeds of the NCAA Tournament. Check out his full Bracketology here.
NCAA Tournament Experts’ Choice
Here’s how our college basketball staff would vote if they were part of the selection committee.
Gary Parris: Kansas is just 2-2 in its last four games, but is still likely to be the No. 1 seed thanks to a national record 17 wins in Quadrant 1. After that , the next three No. 1 seeds are easy to identify. Sure, Texas and Marquette have reasonable cases, but the other three No. 1 seeds will be the AAC champion (Houston), the SEC champion (Alabama) and the Big Ten champion (Purdue). The only school that had a chance to break that group heading into the weekend was UCLA, but its chances were snuffed out when the Bruins lost to Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship game on Saturday night.
Matt Norlander: I am a strong proponent of the Losses Matter philosophy. Kansas has the most losses of any team in consideration for a No. 1 seed. And here, I put the Jayhawks on top. The reason is obvious: KU’s 17 wins in Q1, an NCAA record. Bill Self’s side have 21 total wins in Q1+Q2, three ahead of Purdue before Sunday. Kansas’ entire resume is basically irrefutable at this point. Houston is going to get a No. 1 seed the old-fashioned way: by having the best winning percentage/record on the board. The Cougars are the only college basketball team to suffer two losses on Sunday. Purdue gets a slight advantage over Texas for the latest No. 1 seed, this before the Big Ten Tournament title game, due to the Boilermakers seeding ahead of the Longhorns in four of six team roster metrics. . That’s basically it. If Purdue falls to Penn State, I would place UT as the final No. 1 and fall to Purdue fifth overall.
Kyle Boon: Kansas and Alabama will be the No. 1 seeds and one of them will be the No. 1 seed overall. I’m sure of that. The forecast becomes increasingly cloudy beyond. Given Purdue’s resume — a Big Ten title, nine Quadrant 1 wins, seven weeks as No. 1 — he should be approved as a third. The fourth seeded No. 1 must go to the two Texas schools in Texas, current Big 12 member and soon-to-be SEC member, and current AAC member and soon-to-be Big 12 member Houston. I’ll give Texas the go-ahead as the final No. of sports and double Houston’s total. The Cougars dominated all season and did almost as well as anyone could with their schedule and within their conference, but if the committee considers Texas’ position in basketball’s toughest league college this season, resumes will likely give the Longhorns a slight wink. .
David Cob: UCLA’s loss in the Pac-12 Tournament title game simplified that decision for the committee. If those teams had struggled in their conference tournaments, perhaps the Bruins and Marquette could have been considered the No. 1 seeds. But most metrics indicate these four stand out from the pack. Although Kansas played poorly in the Big 12 tournament title game, the Jayhawks amassed enough cushion during the Big 12 regular season title race to still land as the No. 1 seed in the standings. general.
Patterson chip: The decision for the four teams assigned to a single line seems fairly simple and uncontroversial, as I imagine the real debate before the weekend was for the fourth seeded No. 1 and Purdue appears to be winning those tiebreakers with a potential Big Ten Tournament title race that includes a few more wins in Q1. As for the No. 1 seed overall, I’m in the boat thinking the loss column should matter. Kansas set a NET-era record (since 2019) for most first-quarter wins with 17, but no team with more than five losses has ever secured the No. 1 seed, and Kansas has seven. That’s why I’ll go with Houston, which is the #1 team in predictive metrics, the #1 team in the NET and has only one flaw (one visit Sunday from Aaron McKie and Temple in late January) on another flawless set of results.