Capital One Fan Vote: Who’s your pick for the final 1-seed?

9:02 am | February 25, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:

Three teams seem pretty safe for a 1-seed with just under three weeks remaining until Selection Sunday. Duke’s future depends on the status of Zion Williamson, but as of now, the Blue Devils have clearly the best résumé in the country — and they’ve also beaten Virginia twice. The Cavaliers are going to be favored by at least five points in every game remaining this season and only have those two losses to Duke. Then there’s Gonzaga, which, barring a stunning drop-off, will secure a 1-seed.

That leaves one spot, for now. The primary candidates for it: Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Kentucky would be the favorite if the season ended today. The Wildcats have lost once since Jan. 5, and they also own wins over Tennessee and North Carolina — and won both of those games fairly handily. They’re 9-3 against Quadrant 1 opponents and have a top-five NET ranking. There are few teams playing better than the Wildcats right now, and their résumé is starting to back that up. Another matchup with Tennessee could go a long way toward locking up a 1-seed.

Michigan State jumped into the fray after going into Ann Arbor and beating Michigan on Sunday, despite injuries to Nick Ward and Joshua Langford. The Spartans have 11 Quadrant 1 wins, the most in the country. It will be interesting to see how the committee views them in a couple of weeks, given that some of their key wins came with Langford and Ward, some without Langford, some without either of them. But their profile is very strong, and they still get Michigan at home to boost it further.

North Carolina has won 14 of its last 16 games, and the Tar Heels’ road win at Duke last week followed by a blowout of Florida State has them in the mix. The biggest feather in the Tar Heels’ cap is their combination of wins over Duke and Gonzaga, which essentially no one else can match. They’ve got one issue — they’ll likely have to jump either Duke or Virginia for a 1-seed. But they do get Duke in Chapel Hill in two weeks.

Tennessee has fallen in the pecking order with two losses in its last three games, one a blowout loss at Kentucky and one to LSU without the Tigers’ best player, Tremont Waters. The Volunteers have a chance to avenge the loss to Kentucky, but without that, they have a severe lack of high-level wins. They beat Gonzaga back in December, but their second-best win is over Louisville before Thanksgiving. Their best win in SEC play is a road win at Florida. Tennessee does have a brutal remaining schedule, too.