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KenPom Bracketology: 2/5

KenPom may still like the Musketeers, but even he has them sliding down the bracket.

Know what's fun? Thinking about March when your team just started February by losing to a team it is objectively much better than. In real life, Xavier has probably used up almost all of the slack they have in terms of putting together a resume that the Selection Committee will find appealing. Realistically, X can make the tournament with 11, maybe 12 losses on the docket on Selection Sunday. You might have noticed that Xavier has 9 losses already. Anyway, let's see if Ken Pomeroy likes Xavier more than my imaginary future Selection Committee does.

First the s-curve...

The KenPom s-curve 2/5
1 KENTUCKY VIRGINIA ARIZONA GONZAGA
2 Duke VILLANOVA Utah WISCONSIN
3 OKLAHOMA Louisville Kansas Baylor
4 Wichita St. NORTHERN IOWA Notre Dame North Carolina
5 Ohio St. Butler West Virginia SMU
6 Georgetown Michigan St. Iowa St. VCU
7 Texas Oklahoma St. Xavier SAN DIEGO ST.
8 Maryland Georgia Mississippi Stanford
9 Arkansas Cincinnati Florida STEPHEN F. AUSTIN
10 Davidson BYU Dayton LSU
11 St. John's Alabama Richmond Providence
12 Texas A&M Iowa South Carolina Minnesota
12 GREEN BAY OLD DOMINION
13 HARVARD BUFFALO MURRAY ST. WILLIAM & MARY
14 SOUTH DAKOTA ST. GEORGIA ST. IONA UC IRVINE
15 WOFFORD NEW MEXICO ST. NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL VERMONT
16 ST. FRANCIS NY FLORIDA GULF COAST HIGH POINT EASTERN WASHINGTON
16 LAFAYETTE TEXAS SOUTHERN
First 4 out Seton Hall Indiana Arizona St. TCU
Next 4 out Illinois St. UCLA North Carolina St. Purdue

kenpom2-5

That 7-10 matchup with Dayton is almost too much to hope for. Actually, it is too much to hope for right now, because no reasonable bracketologist is giving Xavier a 7 with a loss to Creighton right in the rear view. We can dream though, right?

In other news, there are nine SEC teams in the KenPom bracket right now, up from a low of 3 early in the year and 6 last week. The Big East has 6 teams plus one more on the bubble, which is pretty much the status quo in this feature. I'm going to go out on a limb and say 6 is the very most teams the league will actually put in the tournament, with 5 seeming like the more likely number. It's going to be a frantic stretch run while the league sorts itself out.