Tag: Joe Lunardi

Where Florida basketball falls in ESPN’s August bracketology update

Florida stayed put as a No. 9 seed in the latest bracketology update from ESPN’s NCAA Tournament expert Joe Lunardi.

The latest monthly bracketology update from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Florida staying put as a projected 9-seed in the East (Newark) Region.

Lunardi has remained firm that Todd Golden has an NCAA Tournament-caliber team in Gainesville, but he’s wavered a bit on how strong that team truly is.

Florida was a No. 6 seed in Lunardi’s way-too-early bracket and held on to that projection through the first update. He dropped the Gators to a No. 7 seed in the mid-May update and again to a No. 9 seed before June.

After moving up to an 8-seed in the June update, Florida fell back down to the 9-seed to close out July.

Lunardi has Florida facing No. 8 Michigan in the first round, although it’s exceedingly unlikely that the matchup will come to fruition. Bracketology projections should be used as rough guides rather than taken as fact.

Golden has transformed the program in just a few short years to where the national expectation is a March Madness run. Gator Nation would like a deeper run this year, but it’s hard to deny the progress made over two seasons.

Where does the rest of the SEC stand?

The Southeastern Conference boasts 10 projected playoff teams and is tied with the Big Ten for the most. The Big 12 is close to that mark with nine followed by the ACC and Big East with six apiece.

Alabama leads the way as the projected No. 1 seed in the South (Atlanta) Region, but Auburn is a threat to overtake its in-state rival as a No. 2 in the Midwest (Indianapolis) Region.

should immediately establish itself as a conference power on the hardwood. Lunardi has SEC-newcomer Texas as a No. 4 seed in the West (San Francisco) and the Tennessee Volunteers also claim a 4-seed, in the Midwest Region.

Arkansas and Texas A&M are No. 5 seeds in the East and South, respectively, while Kentucky and Mississippi State are the No. 6 seeds in those regions. Ole Miss is the No. 9 seed in the Midwest, rounding out the projected Field of 64 teams in the conference.

Lunardi also included [anyclip-media thumbnail=”undefined” playlistId=”undefined” content=”dW5kZWZpbmVk”][/anyclip-media] in his Next Four Out.

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Joe Lunardi puts Duke and North Carolina on 2-seed line in ESPN’s latest 2025 Bracketology

Duke opened as early favorites for the 2025 national championship, but ESPN’s Joe Lunardi now thinks the Tar Heels are on their same tier.

When ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi released his first projections for the 2025 NCAA Tournament, he listed Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils as the top overall seed.

In almost every successive update since, Duke has dropped a little lower.

After dropping them from the top spot in May, Lunardi slid the Blue Devils down to a No. 2 seed in June. Now, in another update on Tuesday, the ESPN analyst thinks North Carolina might be on Duke’s same footing in the ACC thanks to two big transfers and a few incoming freshmen.

“It might be that North Carolina is the favorite when the ACC conducts its preseason poll in October,” Lunardi wrote.

In his latest full-field projection, both the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels finished on the 2-seed line. Lunardi paired Duke with No. 1 Alabama in the East Region, and UNC paired with No. 1 Kansas (the top overall seed in the tournament) in the Midwest Region.

Four other ACC teams made the bracket in Lunardi’s way-too-early Bracketology; Clemson (No. 8, South), Wake Forest (No. 9, Midwest), and Miami (No. 10, West). Pittsburgh finished in the First Four, battling Maryland for the No. 11 seed in the East.

Where does Joe Lunardi have Ohio State basketball in a way-too-early bracketolgy?

Do you like where Lundardi thinks Ohio State hoops will land in March? #GoBucks

Yeah, yeah, we know football season hasn’t even started yet and it’s only late June, but the hardest working bracketologist, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is always polishing up the crystal ball and looking ahead to project where college basketball teams will land in 2025’s NCAA Tournament.

And wouldn’t you know, he just recently updated his prognostications and has Ohio State in the field. It’s not a lofty seed mind you, but a seed nonetheless as the Buckeyes look to take some momentum from the end of last season into this one under new head coach Jake Diebler.

So where does Lunardi have the Scarlet and Gray? As of right now, he has them as a No. 8 seed in the East, facing No. 9 seed BYU. Getting an eight seed is never great in a game that’s two perceived teams that are almost equal, so let’s hope Ohio State surprises Lunardi and others with the new faces melding with the returning ones for the 2024-2025 season.

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Where Florida basketball falls in ESPN’s June bracketology update

ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi moved Florida up a seed in his latest NCAA Tournament projections, which are updated monthly.

ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi believes that [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] will assemble an NCAA Tournament-caliber roster at Florida for a second-straight season, but he can’t quite settle on a seed for the Gators as the offseason continues.

After starting off as a No. 6 seed in Lunardi’s way-too-early bracket and holding on to that projection through the first update, Florida dropped to a No. 7 seed in the mid-May update and again to a No. 9 seed heading into June.

In his latest update, published on June 18, Lunardi has Florida up to a No. 8 seed, playing No. 9 Wake Forest in the West (San Francisco) Region.

A betting man wouldn’t put a nickel down on that matchup coming to fruition, but it’s clear what Florida’s expectations are in 2024-25, assuming a healthy summer and fall.

The Gators are a middle-of-the-pack NCAA Tournament team, which is better than the national impression of the program when Golden took over for Mike White — Georgia is notably one of six SEC teams not projected by Lunardi to make the Big Dance.

Where does the rest of the SEC stand?

The conference boasts 10 projected playoff teams, beating out the Big 12 and Big 12 with nine apiece. Alabama leads the way as the projected No. 1 seed in the South (Atlanta) Region, but Auburn is a threat to overtake its in-state rival as a No. 2 in the Midwest (Indianapolis) Region.

SEC-newcomer Texas should immediately establish itself as a conference power on the hardwood. Lunardi has the Longhorns as a No. 4 seed in the West and the Tennessee Volunteers in the same spot in the East (Newark) Region.

Arkansas is a No. 5 seed (Midwest), while Kentucky, Mississippi State and Texas A&M occupy three of the four No. 6 seeds. Ole Miss is the No. 7 seed in the East, rounding out the projected Field of 64 teams in the conference.

Lunardi also included Missouri and Vanderbilt in his First Four Out. Expect them to be “on the bubble” for much of the regular season.

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Duke drops down to a No. 2 seed in Lunardi’s early 2025 Bracketology

The Blue Devils started the offseason as a 2025 championship favorite, but transfer portal splashes bumped them down in Lunardi’s eyes.

Longtime ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi released an updated 2025 bracketology on Tuesday and he’s much lower on the Blue Devils than he was months ago.

When Lunardi released his first field projection for next year’s March Madness, the Blue Devils took the top overall spot in the field. In the two months since, however, other teams like Kansas and Alabama made some splashes in the transfer portal to boot Jon Scheyer’s team down a peg.

Not only has Duke lost the top overall spot, the Blue Devils are now down to the No. 2 seed in the East region.

The Jayhawks, the Crimson Tide, Houston, and two-time defending national champion Connecticut took the four top lines in Lunardi’s new projections.

With the Pac-12 gone from the top conferences, the remaining Power 4 conferences will get an alarming number of teams in the tournament next season. Lunardi had seven ACC teams (and 10 SEC schools!) in his early bracket.

North Carolina (No. 3 seed), Miami (No. 8), Wake Forest (No. 9), Clemson (No. 10), Louisville (First Four), and Pittsburgh (First Four) also made the bracket from the conference.

Where Florida basketball falls in Lunardi’s May bracketology update

It might be way too early to start talking March Madness projections, but Florida took a dip in the latest ESPN bracketology update.

Look, we get it, the last thing most college sports fans are thinking about is basketball right now. The NBA Finals are upon us, football season is almost here and the real ones are neck-deep in baseball for the summer.

But ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi makes an excellent point when he claims that “there is no longer an off-season in college basketball.” Monthly updates are required with the sport’s constant movement over the so-called offseason.

As the month of May draws to a close, Florida is trending down on Lunardi’s 2025 NCAA Tournament projections. He views the Gators as a No. 9 seed right now, a step back from the No. 7 seed Florida secured in 2024.

Florida is losing a good amount of talent. Replacing a First Team All-SEC talent in Zyon Pullin won’t be easy, and finding a big man to fill Tyrese Samuel’s shoes will be hard, too.

Still, the Gators have already brought in a solid transfer portal haul and  [autotag]Walter Clayton Jr[/autotag]. and [autotag]Will Richard[/autotag] both announced their return within the past month. It’s a bit of a headscratcher to see Lunardi drop the Gators following those returns, but every team is spending the summer trying to upgrade the roster.

Clayton has a first-round ceiling and could help Florida climb up Lunardi’s projections with a strong summer. The season doesn’t begin until November, but the team does work out together in the fall.

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Joe Lunardi speaks to ACC basketball coaches at spring meetings

Longtime bracket analyst Joe Lunardi reportedly talked to the ACC basketball coaches about how to improve their odds for at-large NCAA Tournament bids.

In the wake of snubs like an undefeated Florida State missing the College Football Playoff and Duke softball just earning the 10th seed in the NCAA Tournament, the ACC spring meetings had some ideas to earn more national favor.

During the conference’s spring meetings on Tuesday, longtime ESPN bracket analyst Joe Lunardi apparently spoke to the men’s basketball coaches for insight on how to earn more at-large bids. The Raleigh News & Observer’s Andrew Carter reported the meeting on social media.

Last year, the ACC earned four at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina, one of the four No. 1 seeds, maintained a steady grip as a top-five team all season, and 4-seed Duke and 6-seed Clemson both made the Elite Eight.

Outside of that, however, only conference tournament champion NC State made the first round. Virginia, who won the national title in 2019, earned a spot in the First Four play-in games.

Pittsburgh and Wake Forest both missed the tournament despite winning 22 and 21 games, respectively, and both sitting inside the top 35 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metric. They were the second- and third-highest teams left out.

Lunardi was apparently invited by the conference to speak with the coaches.

Wisconsin basketball appears in Joe Lunardi’s 2025 bracketology

Wisconsin basketball appears in Joe Lunardi’s 2025 Bracketology

Wisconsin men’s basketball program appeared in Joe Lunardi’s latest 2025 March Madness men’s field prediction on Thursday. 

Fresh off their round of 64 loss to No. 5 James Madison, Lunardi projected Wisconsin as one of the last four teams to make the tournament.

Wisconsin, alongside Saint Mary’s, Illinois and NC State, is forecast as an “on the bubble team” in the way-too-early estimates for 2025.

Over the past few weeks, UW’s program has experienced a complete shift in personnel. Thus far, the Badgers have landed Missouri transfer guard John Tonje, Central Arkansas guard Camren Hunter and Northern Illinois power forward Xavier Amos via the transfer portal.

With the departures of former Badgers Chucky Hepburn (portal), AJ Storr (portal) and Tyler Wahl (graduation), Greg Gard’s starting lineup will look much different in the fall. 

Wisconsin boasts four Final Four appearances, six Elite Eight bids and 10 Sweet 16 seasons in its storied history. The crew finished 22-14 a season ago, but will welcome three newcomers and freshman Daniel Freitag into the rotation next season.

Duke loses top overall seed in ESPN’s early 2025 Bracketology

Despite six top-50 players and two big-time transfers already committed, the Blue Devils lost the top spot in the 2025 bracket projection.

According to longtime ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi, the Duke Blue Devils are no longer the team to beat in 2025.

Lunardi released an updated way-too-early 2025 bracket projection, and Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks overtook Jon Scheyer as the top overall seed.

Duke will welcome Cooper Flagg, the top recruit in the country and the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, and five other top-50 freshmen in the 2024 recruiting class. The Blue Devils also got commitments from Maliq Brown of Syracuse and Mason Gillis of Purdue out of the transfer portal, and the team stood atop Lunardi’s initial 2025 projection.

Kansas, however, returned All-American center Hunter Dickinson after many expected the 2023-24 season to be his last. Self also wooed Alabama’s Rylan Griffen, Wisconsin’s AJ Storr, and Florida’s Riley Kugel, among others.

“All (the portal additions) have NCAA tournament experience and will certainly help the Jayhawks erase the injury-riddled conclusion to their 2023-24 campaign,” Lunardi wrote.

Duke remained a No. 1 seed in the projection, now slotting into the East region.

Duke takes top overall seed in Joe Lunardi’s early 2025 bracketology

With Cooper Flagg leading the top recruiting class in the country, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi thinks the 2025 NCAA Tournament runs through Duke.

The 2023-24 basketball season is still fresh in everyone’s memory, but it’s never too early to gaze toward the 2024-25 campaign.

ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi certainly agrees as he released an early look at the projected 2025 NCAA Tournament field on Tuesday, and he slotted Duke in as his top overall seed.

Fresh off a run to the Elite Eight last season and an ACC Tournament title two years ago, head coach Jon Scheyer welcomes No. 1 overall recruit Cooper Flagg, projected lottery pick Khaman Maluach, and two other five-star prospects in an esteemed freshman class.

Combine the new pedigree with Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster, two 2023-24 starters, already announcing their return, and it’s easy to see why so many experts think the team to beat next season plays in Durham.

The incredibly early bracket has Scheyer’s team atop the East region and playing the winner of Norfolk State and Central Connecticut from the First Four games.

Baylor, Connecticut, and Texas rounded out the top four seeds in Duke’s corner of the bracket. Kansas, Alabama, and Houston claimed the other three No. 1 seeds.

Will March Madness run through the Blue Devils next season? Duke fans will have to wait until the fall to get its first indications.