Where Memphis basketball’s NCAA Tournament resume stands as March Madness arrives
FORT WORTH, Texas −Memphis basketball will be back in March Madness win or lose today − Selection Sunday.
By all accounts, the Tigers (25-8) are assured of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid in the event they come up short against No. 1 Houston (31-2) in the AAC Tournament championship game (2:15 p.m., ESPN). Their body of work is more than enough to peg Memphis in among the field of 68.
Penny Hardaway's team, on the final day of championship week, comes in at No. 29 on the NCAA's all-important NET rankings (a two-spot jump from the day before thanks to its 94-54 demolition of third-seeded Tulane in a semifinal matchup). Memphis sits at No. 28 via KenPom and No. 31 on the Basketball Power Index. The Tigers sport three Quad 1 wins, nine Quad 2 victories and just one Quad 3 loss (a 1-point setback in overtime at home to Tulane). They are 3-3 versus teams projected to be in the field by ESPN's Joe Lunardi and 1-3 against regular-season conference champs. Two teams Memphis defeated this season (Texas A&M and VCU) are playing for conference tournament titles Sunday.
So, just what does that mean to the NCAA Tournament selection committee, which considers all these things and then some? We won't know for sure until the selection show (5 p.m., CBS). But there are plenty of bracket projections that might offer some insight into what might be in store for the Tigers.
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Sizing up Memphis' March Madness resume
The Tigers appear on all 103 of the most up-to-date bracket projections tracked by BracketMatrix.com. Based on their average position of those projections, the Tigers are the second No. 9 seed.
Lunardi bumped Memphis up to an 8 seed in his latest bracketology and has it facing West Virginia in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday. Lunardi forecasts 1 seed Purdue and the Howard-Southeast Missouri State play-in game winner in the same pod.
CBS Sports' Jerry Palm projects the same setup for the Tigers: an 8 seed versus WVU in Columbus.
Likewise, Dave Ommen (bracketville.com) slots Memphis as his second 8 seed going into Sunday's game.
Shelby Mast, of bracketwag.com, also has Memphis in as an 8. But Mast puts the Tigers in Birmingham with Illinois as their first opponent Thursday and has 1 seed Alabama and the Howard-Southeast Missouri State winner in that pod.
Evan Miyakawa, who runs one of the leading stat analytics services (evanmiya.com) in the country, put Memphis in as a 9 seed. In his most recent bracket simulation, the Tigers are projected to face FAU in Columbus and reach the Final Four, where they are projected to fall to Gonzaga.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis NCAA Tournament 2023: Where its March Madness resume stands
