The Fieldhouse Bracket Watch: Did upsets shake Kansas and Duke from their spots?

A week ago, Kansas barely edged out Duke for my fourth No. 1 seed. Over the weekend, the Jayhawks (18-5) suffered a surprising home loss to Big 12 eighth-place foe Oklahoma State, while the Blue Devils (19-4) inexplicably fell at 11-13 St. John’s. The door seemingly opened for someone like 21-2 Auburn or 21-3 Xavier to rise up to the No. 1 line.

But Kansas remains right where it was. In fact, the Jayhawks perfectly illustrate the impact of the changes the NCAA basketball committee’s made this season to the way it views teams’ resumes.

Over the years, I’ve found that teams’ RPI Top-50 record was clearly the committee’s most valued criteria. That was no arbitrary distinction. The so-called “team sheets” the committee looked at grouped opponents by 1-50, 51-100, 101-200 and 200+.

Starting this year, however, the NCAA changed the team sheets to acknowledge that winning on the road is a lot harder than winning at home. Now, teams’ schedules are grouped by “quadrants.”

Quadrant 1 (the first one on the left) includes home games against RPI Top-30 opponents, neutral site games against Top-50 opponents and road games against Top-75 opponents. Quadrant 2 (next to that) is home games against teams ranked 31-75, neutral-site games against teams 51-100 and road games against teams ranked 76-135.

Confused? Well, let’s take look at Kansas’ resume.

Under the old system, Kansas’ records (as of Monday night) were 6-4 against the Top 50 and 7-1 against the rest of the Top 100. Under the new system, however, its road wins against No. 58 Nebraska and No. 70 Kansas State move up to Q1, while its home losses to No. 38 Washington and No. 43 Arizona State move down to Q2.

So Kansas’ team sheet currently shows it with an impressive 8-2 record in that Q1 column. Only No. 1 overall seed Villanova (9-1) has more Q1 victories than the Jayhawks. And because that mark is significantly better than Xavier’s (5-3) or Auburn’s (4-2), I kept KU in front of them for now.

Conversely, Duke’s resume looks less favorable with the new classification. The Blue Devils are 5-1 against the RPI Top 50, but just 4-2 against Q1. And while the new system is more forgiving of road losses, the Blue Devils’ defeats at No. 79 Boston College and No. 94 St. John’s still fall to the second column.

This edition’s bracket is East vs. West and Midwest vs. South in the national semifinals, based on the order of my No. 1 seeds.

* — Denotes projected conference champion, automatic berth.

Seed	Team	Location
1	Villanova*
16	Wagner*	Pittsburgh
8	Miami
9	Texas

4	Ohio State
13	Vermont*	San Diego
5	Kentucky
12	Buffalo*

6	Rhode Island*
11	USC/SMU	Pittsburgh
3	West Virginia
14	Bucknell*

7	Alabama
10	Providence	Charlotte
2	Duke
15	Rider*

Seed	Team	Location
1	Kansas*
16	UNC-Asheville/Nicholls St.	Wichita
8	Arkansas
9	Nevada*

4	Arizona*
13	Montana*	San Diego
5	Gonzaga
12	Kansas St./Boise St.

6	TCU
11	Middle Tennessee St.*	Dallas
3	Michigan St.
14	South Dakota St.*

7	Arizona State
10	Missouri	Nashville
2	Clemson
15	UC-Santa Barbara*

Seed	Team	Location
1	Purdue*
16	Penn*	Detroit
8	Saint Mary’s*
9	Texas A&M

4	Oklahoma
13	Loyola Chicago*	Boise
5	Seton Hall
12	Louisiana*

6	Florida
11	Houston	Wichita
3	North Carolina
14	N. Kentucky*

7	Florida St.
10	Washington	Detroit
2	Xavier
15	Northeastern*

Seed	Team	Location
1	Virginia*
16	North Carolina AT&T/Ark-Pine Bluff	Charlotte
8	Michigan
9	Butler

4	Cincinnati*
13	E. Tennessee St.*	Boise
5	Tennessee
12	New Mexico St.*

6	Creighton
11	NC State	Dallas
3	Texas Tech
14	Belmont*

7	Wichita St.
10	Louisville	Nashville
2	Auburn*
15	Florida Gulf Coast*

* * *

LAST FOUR BYES: Louisville, NC State, Providence, Washington.

LAST FOUR IN: USC, SMU, Kansas State, Boise State

FIRST FOUR OUT: Virginia Tech, Syracuse, UCLA, Georgia

MULTIPLE BID CONFERENCES: ACC (8), SEC (8), Big 12 (7), Big East (6), AAC (4), Big Ten (4), Pac-12 (4), MWC (2), WCC (2)

(Top photos by Getty Images)