Hoyas over Duke for No. 1 seed
Blue Devils still a No. 2 seed; UK among SEC teams on wrong side of cut line
Welcome back to the expanded edition of Joe Lunardi's Rundown. Since the start of February, this series has featured tournament odds, an element that will take you deeper into Bracketology. Bracketology provides a snapshot of how the bracket looks on a specific day, but through the use of Lunardi's extensive database of previous seasons, tournament odds tell you how the bracket is likely to look come Selection Sunday.
Top-line report
Don't like the No. 1 seeds? Just wait about an hour and at least one of them will lose.
That's how it seemed last week when Indiana (at Minnesota), Duke (at Virginia), Florida (at Tennessee) and Michigan (at Penn State) all stumbled in a little more than a 48-hour period. The losses were good news for Gonzaga, Kansas and Georgetown, each of which move up this week and face the burden of defending their newfound spots in the bracket.
Georgetown's spot is the most tenuous and, in a bit of a surprise to me, controversial. Apparently, the assumption was that Duke would move back up if the Blue Devils won their rematch with Miami. Yet all that did was square the season series between the two and bring the Devils within two games of the Hurricanes in the ACC. I'll wait for a Georgetown loss and/or a Miami-Duke rubber game to reassess these three teams relative to the top line.
In the meantime, the Hoyas own the longest winning streak among BCS conference members. They also have seven RPI Top 50 wins (tied for fourth in the country) and the best collection of true road wins -- Notre Dame, Syracuse, Connecticut, Cincinnati -- among all the No. 1 seed contenders.
Georgetown's biggest worry at this point might just be the Lunardi jinx.
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