Editor's note: Teams preceded by their conference name are expected to win their league's automatic bid.

March 23/Raleigh, N.C.
(1) Duke vs. (16) SWAC/Alabama State
(8) BIG WEST/UC Santa Barbara vs. (9) Notre Dame
March 22/Athens, Ga.
(5) Minnesota vs. (12) Richmond
(4) Georgia vs. (13) IVY/Harvard
March 23/Cincinnati
(3) Villanova vs. (14) Western Kentucky
(6) Ohio State vs. (11) Cincinnati
March 23/Manhattan, Kan.
(7) Arizona vs. (10) Michigan State
(2) Kansas State vs. (15) MAAC/Manhattan

TEAM	THUMBS UP	THUMBS DOWN
1. Duke	23-1 record	Home loss to UConn
2. Kansas State	Eight RPI Top 50 wins	6-2 road record
3. Villanova	No. 9 RPI	One sub-100 RPI loss
4. Georgia	8-2 in SEC	7-6 on road/neutral sites
5. Minnesota	9-4 on road/neutral sites	No. 86 in SOS
6. Ohio State	9-6 vs. RPI Top 100	5-7 on road/neutral sites
7. Arizona	Beat Georgia, Illinois, UW	2-3 vs. RPI Top 25
8. UC Santa Barbara	Beat then-No. 6 Purdue	No. 165 in SOS
9. Notre Dame	No. 14 in SOS	2-7 vs. RPI Top 50
10. Michigan State	8-2 in last 10 games	Three sub-100 RPI losses
11. Cincinnati	7-3 vs. RPI Top 100	No. 96 in SOS
12. Richmond	9-4 on road/neutral sites	No. 94 in SOS
Note: SOS refers to strength of schedule; CollegeRPI.com used as reference; teams expected to be invited solely by virtue of their conference's automatic bid are not included in this analysis.

Charlie Creme was a writer and editor at Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook for 11 years. Click here to send him a question about his bracket projections.