Bracket Watch: Which Teams Will Be The First Four?

Marshall Henderson has helped catapult Ole Miss's stock during the SEC Tournement. [Dave Martin/AP]

It's Selection Sunday! After a long, four-month march, we're now at the best day of March. Briefly, there were interesting decisions both at the top of the bracket and at the cutline. I ultimately went with Louisville as my No. 1 overall seed, a smidge ahead of Indiana, but if the committee goes the other way, that's perfectly understandable. Same with Duke and Kansas at Nos. 3 and 4. Gonzaga, a lot of people's choice to be a 1-seed, doesn't have the overall resume strength of those four, and it's questionable whether they're even ahead of New Mexico. That said, if Gonzaga gets a 1, good for them. The Bulldogs are a very strong team and it would be good for smaller-conference hoops.

The cutline discussion is about as dull as any year in recent memory. It feels like there's even a pretty significant gap between La Salle and Mississippi and the other two First Four teams. What that means is it comes down to three teams for two spots: Tennessee, Saint Mary's and Middle Tennessee State. The Vols get in thanks to the quality of their wins. Flip a coin for the "good team/empty profile" final spot, although the Gaels' resume is basically a stronger proxy of the Blue Raiders'.

We'll see if anything that happens on Sunday afternoon changes the final picture, but this is how things stand right now.

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*Designated auto-bid winners from each conference.

Note: Villanova/Colorado and Cincinnati/Wichita State switched 9/10 seeds to satisfy bracketing rules.

Last four in: La Salle, Mississippi, Tennessee, Saint Mary's

Last four out: Middle Tennessee State, Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland

New at-large teams in: None

Old at-large teams out: None

Bids by conference:

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