Coug fans have come accustomed each fall to reading through everyone’s bowl predictions. It’s nice to do the same thing this time of year, except now it’s looking at WSU’s NCAA Tournament chances.
Our Cougs welcome the UCLA Bruins to Beasley this afternoon for a 4 p.m. tip. You can watch the game on the Pac-12 Network.
Thursday’s crowd was WSU’s best since Klay Day, and let’s hope today’s is just as strong and the snow clears from the surrounding highways in time for folks to get to Pullman.
WSU sits at no. 38 in the NET rankings and have six Quad 1 victories. Today’s game is a Quad 3 game, while next week’s season finale against UW is a Quad 2 game. So, WSU is done with Quad 1 opportunities, save for the Pac-12 tournament. The Cougs are 6-3 in Quad 1 games this year.
As you prepare for tonight’s game, here’s where WSU sits in the NCAA Tournament picture, according to people who predict and project these kinds of things:
- ESPN Bracketology: 5-seed, playing in Spokane (this is a picture of where things stand now)
- T-Ranketology: 6-seed (reminder: This is a prediction of how the season will end)
- CBS: 6-seed
- On3: 7-seed
- Fox Sports: 7-seed
Finally, WSU is, on average, a 6-seed in all bracketology exercises tracked by Bracket Matrix.
That 5-seed playing in Spokane that Lunardi has would obviously be the best-case scenario. Lunardi is the dean of bracketologists and does a great job of predicting the field. The exact seeds and the exact locations are a different ballgame, but let’s hope he nails that one.
To get there, it starts tonight against a UCLA team with a 113 NET ranking and sits 9-8 in Pac-12 play and 14-14 overall. The Bruins gave up 94 points in a loss at Washington on Thursday.
It’s a home game for WSU with what should be a fantastic crowd. Go Cougs.