This edition of "Bracket Math" includes all games through Wednesday, March 9. Rankings reflect an up-to-date S-Curve from yours truly, posing as one hypothetical member of the NCAA men's basketball committee.
Unless you're a fan of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, there was little to boil your blood on Wednesday. The Nebraska Cornhuskers and Baylor Bears lost their Big 12 conference tourney openers to fall out of consideration, but that's about it. Baylor may go down as the most disappointing team in the nation this season.
This might also be a good time to point out that the NIT is already one-quarter filled with eight automatic qualifiers. The bubble for that field is getting more competitive and several decent teams will be left behind.
The S-curve
*: Clinched regular-season title and NIT automatic bid if needed
Bold: Projected conference winners (highest remaining conference tournament seed)
CAPS and BOLD (no *): Clinched automatic bid
GREEN: Teams with tourney odds of 85 percent or better through games of March 7.
YELLOW: "Last four in" (will play March 15-16 in Dayton, Ohio)
GOLD: Lowest four auto-bids (will play March 15-16 in Dayton, Ohio)
RED: "First four out" (teams 69-72 on the S-curve)
ORANGE: "Next four out" (teams 73-76 on the S-Curve)