Saturday morning bracketology news provided a bracket projection Alabama basketball fans will love. Evan Miyakawa is a respected statistician. Most of his data requires a subscription, but on Saturday morning, he tweeted an NCAA Tournament bracket simulation.
The simulation included some stunning upsets, including Utah State beating Michigan in the Second Round, McNeese State beating Arkansas in the First Round, and Kansas beating Florida in a Sweet 16 game.
Miyakawa has Alabama Basketball in the West Region, beating Hofstra in the First Round. The simulation has Alabama beating St. John's in the Second Round and upsetting Arizona in the Sweet Sixteen. The shocking projected upset by Alabama over the West Region 1-seed, crashes with a Crimson Tide Elite Eight loss to Saint Mary's.
One of many incredulous Twitter responses about the simulation said Miyakawa's algorithm must be broken. Maybe Miyakawa provided the simulation in jest.
Lunardi has Alabama Basketball as 4-seed
Joe Lunardi's Saturday update has the Alabama Crimson Tide as a West Region 4-seed. Playing in Tampa, Lunardi has Alabama opening with Hofstra. In a Second Round game, Alabama would take on the winner of St. John's vs. McNeese State.
Lunardi has nine SEC teams in the Big Dance field. Florida is a 1-seed, Alabama and Vanderbilt are 4-seeds, Arkansas is a 5-seed, Tennessee is a 6-seed, and Texas A&M is a 10-seed. As 11-seeds, Texas and Missouri are projected to have Play-In games. Oklahoma is Lunardi's first First Four Out (FFO), and Auburn is the third FFO.
More current (and possibly more accurate) bracket projections can be seen in an earlier Saturday post. In it, I stated Alabama was a consensus 4-seed. Mike DeCourcy of Fox College Sports proved me wrong. DeCourcey has the Crimson Tide as a 5-seed in the East Region, opening with High Point. Alabama would get the winner of Illinois vs. Idaho in the Second Round. The East Region 2-seed in the DeCourcy bracket is UConn.
The Bracket Matrix Saturday update has the Crimson Tide as the top 4-seed in the Big Dance. Alabama's average ranking on 110 submitted brackets is 3.75.