Ollie-ollie oxen free!! With USF basketball breaking through the Big East basketball oligarchy this season, where do the best bracketologists in America (and I guess THE WORLD) have USF listed going into its quarterfinal game against Notre Dame? Are we in or are we out?
According to Bracket Project, which rates bracketologists based on, among other things, teams predicted in the tourney and seed accuracy, the top six bracketologists are a step ahead of the competition. These might not be sports household names, but over the past three or more seasons, they have been the most accurate bracket prognosticators in the business. What do they say about USF?
Bracketville - NOT IN, among the first four out of the tourney
Notes: "Seton Hall remains in the field as a First Four participant in Dayton. They are matched against Xavier. St. Joseph's and Drexel are the other First Four at-large teams. With this grouping, regular-season rematches were unavoidable. The First Four could look much different come Saturday morning. The next two days will be critical for teams like Northwestern, Texas, South Florida, Dayton, St. Joseph's, Miami-Fla, NC State, and Oregon."
CollegeHoops.Net - NOT IN, among the first four out of the tourney.
"USF completed the night with a 56-47 win over Villanova, and the key at this point for Stan Heath's Bulls is to simply keep winning. Freshman point guard Anthony Collins led the way with 17 points and four assists in what was an ugly game offensively, and a third win over the Wildcats won't do a whole lot for their resume. But to get a matchup with Notre Dame is a great opportunity for the Bulls, who with a win on Thursday night would make their first-ever semifinal appearance. The simplest thing for a bubble team to do at this time of the season is to make sure they live to fight another day. Connecticut and USF did just that on Wednesday."
The Bracket Project - IN, as a 13th seed, not in the First Four.
Beer's Bracket - IN, as a 12th seed, not in the First Four.
Notes: Beer is a superstar-level fan blog on CBSSports.com.
Busting the Bracket - IN, as a 12th seed, heading to Dayton to play in the First Four.
D1SCOURSE - Patrick Stevens- IN, as a 11th seed, not in the First Four
Notes: D1SCOURSE is a blog for the Washington Post.
So four out of six have USF in the tourney, but two say they still have work to do, or need some help from other teams. I'll update this tomorrow to see how things are after the Notre Dame game.