Bracketology: Predicting the 2025 NCAA Tournament field – The UConn Conundrum

12/02/2024 01:53 PM

Welcome to another edition of Bracketology, and welcome to what I’m calling, The UConn Conundrum. As you’re surely aware by now, the two-time defending champion UConn Huskies had a disastrous stay in Hawaii over Feast Week, and that surprising 0-3 run in the Maui Invitational has raised a massive early season question… what do we do with the UConn Huskies?

At present moment, UConn is 5-3, and their five wins have come against Sacred Heart, New Hampshire, LeMoyne, East Texas A&M and Maryland Eastern Shore. If I would’ve swapped out LeMoyne and Sacred Heart for Division II schools like Nova Southeastern and Minnesota Duluth, you wouldn’t have known the difference. This is all to say that in terms of an NCAA Tournament resume, right now, the 2024-25 Huskies don’t have a strong one.

But remember, there is an element of projection to Bracketology. Where are these teams going to end up playing in March, sure, but also, how do we expect them to get there? Right now, it seems clear that the Huskies aren’t a top-tier title contender, but the last two years have taught us that’s not the case.

I don’t expect that UConn will lose every game they play to every non-walkover opponent they play. They’ll have numerous chances to boost their resume before they even get into Big East competition, with games against Baylor, Texas and Gonzaga upcoming. I don’t expect that they’ll go 0-3 in those games like they did in Maui. But for now, the idea of placing the Huskies as one of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament seems irresponsible. For that reason, I’ve got UConn on the 7-line right now.

Bracketology Bracket

Bracketology Breakdown 

Top Seeds: Kansas Jayhawks (Midwest Region), Auburn Tigers (South Region), Gonzaga Bulldogs (West Region), Tennessee Volunteers (East Region)

Multi-Bid Leagues: ACC (5), Big 12 (7), Big East (6), Big Ten (11), Mountain West (2), SEC (11), WCC (2)

Bracketology Bubble Watch

Last Four Byes: Saint Mary's, Boise State, Oklahoma, Rutgers

Last Four In: UCLA, Wake Forest, Butler, Nebraska

First Four Out: San Diego State, Arizona, UCF, West Virginia

Next Four Out: Nevada, New Mexico, Louisville, Maryland

Five Most Intriguing Games on Wednesday  

With the SEC/ACC Challenge and the Big 12-Big East Battle going on at the same time, we have a full course of superb college hoops action ahead of us on Wednesday alone this week. Seriously, check out this slate!

Wednesday December 3rd (FS1, 6:30 PM ET) – Baylor at UConn

Wednesday December 3rd (ESPN, 7:15 PM ET) – Alabama at North Carolina

Wednesday December 3rd (ESPN+, 8:00 PM ET) – Marquette at Iowa State

Wednesday December 3rd (FS1, 8:30 PM ET) – Kansas at Creighton

Wednesday December 3rd (ESPN, 9:15 PM ET) – Auburn at Duke

By the way, this doesn’t even include tasty Tuesday matchups like Wake Forest at Texas A&M, Ole Miss at Louisville, or Kentucky at Clemson, or potentially intriguing Wednesday showdowns like Pittsburgh at Mississippi State and Texas at NC State. Looks to me like Feast Week spilled over into the first week of December.

And One! 

A two for one special in the And One! section of Bracketology this week, I’ll be taking a stab at picking the winners in both the SEC/ACC Challenge AND the Big 12-Big East Battle. Without much hesitation, I think it’s safe to say that the Big 12 will emerge victorious from their battle against the Big East, even if I do believe Dan Hurley’s Huskies are going to right the ship on Wednesday night. The Big 12 is just a far deeper conference than the Big East is.

The SEC/ACC Challenge is a little trickier, especially with Duke, North Carolina, Clemson and NC State all playing at home. Every game I listed above feels like a toss-up, but just as was the case last year when I made this prediction, I’m taking the SEC to win more games in this showcase than their ACC counterparts.

Past And One! Predictions

11/24/24 – I’ll eat way too much food on Thanksgiving (CORRECT)

The post Bracketology: Predicting the 2025 NCAA Tournament field – The UConn Conundrum appeared first on ClutchPoints.