Updated NCAA tournament projections: San Diego State still not safely in
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ESPN’s longtime bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, released his updated NCAA tournament bracket projections on Tuesday morning.
Winners of six of their past seven games, San Diego State (17-6, 10-4) still sits in Lunardi’s ‘Last Four In’ group of teams for the NCAA tournament. Positioned with Oklahoma, Arkansas and Wake Forest as the final group safely in the tournament, Lunardi has the Aztecs taking on Oklahoma in a ‘first four’ game in Dayton, Ohio.
Boise State, who last week appeared in the group of ‘next four out’, is no longer on the bubble according to Lunardi. The Broncos could help their case by registering a win over New Mexico on Wednesday night.
San Diego State has moved up to No. 51 in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index after Saturday’s dominant win over Boise State. The BPI continues to shuffle the Mountain West Conference teams. Utah State (No. 46), New Mexico (No. 49), San Diego State (No. 51) and Boise State (No. 53) are all within eight spots of one another.
The Aztecs will take on Fresno State in a must-win game on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs have won once since December 14, a victory over Air Force more than a month ago. Fresno State currently sits at No. 277 in the NCAA’s NET Rankings, meaning a San Diego State victory would improve their record to 8-0 against quad 4 teams this season.
San Diego State will travel to Utah State later in the week, taking on an Aggies team that currently sits one game ahead of the Aztecs in the loss column. After the quick visit to Utah, San Diego State will have a quick turnaround, hosting first-place New Mexico at Viejas Arena a week from Tuesday.
New Mexico (22-4, 14-1) currently sits two spots ahead of the Aztecs in ESPN’s BPI. The Lobos registered a massive victory on Sunday, erasing a first-half deficit to take down Utah State. New Mexico leads the Mountain West Conference standings by two games with five games remaining but will be on the road at Boise State and San Diego State for their next two contests.
The Lobos have reached the NCAA tournament once in the past nine seasons after making it four times in five seasons more than a decade ago. Following Saturday’s victory over Utah State, ESPN’s BPI now gives the Lobos a 94.6 percent chance to take the regular season crown in the conference.
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-770033d1c5c4820fdbde4ecf2452e810.jpg "Bodie De Silva")
Bodie DeSilva has been covering sports in San Diego for more than a decade. He previously covered San Diego State athletics for Scout/Fox Sports.