We're hours away from the selection show.  

Last year the story of the bracket reveal was Louisville being two seed lines lower than expected, coming in as an 8 seed when most expected them to be a 6.  This year, they're right back where they were last year, projected to be a 6.

Kentucky is almost universally expected to be a 7 seed.  In the 129 brackets projected on bracketmatrix.com, only three have them lower than a 7 (all having them at 8), and their average projected seed is 6.98.  

Projection essentially has last four in as Missouri, Miami (OH), SMU, and Texas (in that order).  San Diego State, Auburn, Oklahoma would be considered first three out, and Indiana, New Mexico, and Stanford essentially tied for the fourth out.  

Projected 3 seeds that perhaps Louisville could pair with (presuming accurately seeded as 6 and both won first round): Purdue, Illinois, Gonzaga, Nebraska.

Projected 2 seeds that perhaps Kentucky could pair with (presuming accurately seeded as 7 and presuming both won first round): UConn, Houston, Iowa State, Michigan State.

This is the final predictions from the highest rated bracketologist over the last few years.

 

Duke is #1 overall as expected.  They play Siena.

St. John's in as #5 in the East w/ Duke.  TOTALLY not projecting a potential Pitino/Duke matchup.

Louisville the #6 in the East. They play South Florida.  Michigan State is their #3.

Michigan State was anticipated to be a 2, they fall to a 3.  

Duke, UConn, Kansas, St. John's, Louisville, UCLA - all seeded where bracketmatrix predicted.  Ohio State gained a seed line above expected, TCU, UCF, South Florida, Norhtern Iowa, Cal Baptist, all as predicted. 

East Bracket should produce some really good games.

Arizona is the next #1, in the west.  They play LIU.

Villanova and Utah State are their 8/9.

Wisconsin slots in as the #5 against High Point.

Arkansas ascends to the 4 seed. They climb a seed line over projected.

Purdue was projected as a 3, climbed to 2 (possibly knocking Michigan State down).  Arkansas was projected as a 5, they climb to 4.  Wisconsin, BYU, Miami (FL), Villanova, all match projections.  Utah State was projected as an 8, they fall to 9.  Mizzou was anticipated to be an 11, they make it to 10.  NC State was projected as a 10, they fell to the first four.  Texas into the first four, which was anticipated.

St. John’s as a #5 was a snub in my opinion, Texas making it was a surprise to me too. Duke definitely has their work cut out for them to be the last team standing for the East.

There's Kentucky as the 7 in the Midwest.  They won't be favored to make the Sweet 16 nor will Tennessee (the 6), but in theory, they could meet in the Sweet 16 again.

Iowa State is the 2 there, and that was a team I feel I've frequently seen Kentucky fans say they wanted no part of.

Miami (OH) in as "the last team in the field".  

Michigan the 3rd overall #1.  Georgia and St. Louis will meet to try to play them in second round.

Texas Tech the 5 (Akron), Alabama the 4 (Hofstra).  Kentucky faces Santa Clara in the 7/10.

So far all the #1s have been as expected. Iowa State, Gonzaga, Alabama, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, St. Louis, Santa Clara, Miami (OH)/SMU, Akron, Hofstra - all of those seeds were as expected in that region.

 

Miami, OH gets the play-in game against SMU in Dayton. Bad news for the rest of the bubble teams. 

All the teams that were at the bottom of bracketmatrix's list are in (Texas, SMU, Miami [OH], Mizzou, Santa Clara, NC State).  That would seem to leave no room for the rest of the bubble unless they make a serious move.  San Diego State, Auburn, Oklahoma, gotta figure they're all out.

Florida the final #1 as expected.  All #1s were as projected by bracketmatrix.

Houston was a 2 as expected, as was Illinois.  Nebraska was projected to be a 3, they slip a seed line, as does Vanderbilt, who was projected as a 4 (falls to a 5).  UNC, St. Mary's, Clemson, Iowa, A&M, VCU, McNeese, all were as projected.  

Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State, Indiana were your first four out.