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) SOUTHLAND/Texas-San Antonio
(8) Illinois vs. (9) Saint Joseph's
March 22/Eugene, Ore.
(5) Arizona vs. (12) Colorado State
(4) Vanderbilt vs. (13) Creighton
March 23/Cincinnati, Ohio
(3) Villanova vs. (14) MAAC/Manhattan
(6) Minnesota vs. (11) Cincinnati
March 23/Manhattan, Kan.
(7) HORIZON/Wisconsin-Green Bay vs. (10) DePaul
(2) Kansas State vs. (15) MAC/Toledo

TEAM	COMMENT
1. Duke	Business-like and dominant
2. Kansas State	Have been in this position all season
3. Villanova	Reaching finals in Big East tourney establishes Wildcats as second-best in the league
4. Vanderbilt	Two wins over Georgia, one over LSU in final month helped
5. Arizona	Clearly Pac-10's No. 2
6. Minnesota	Something of an enigma
7. Wisconsin-Green Bay	Tournament is a chance to showcase years of dominance in Horizon
8. Illinois	Good RPI, average record
9. Saint Joseph's	Played a great non-conference schedule, but no scalps
10. DePaul	Conference USA's best profile
11. Cincinnati	Will have advantage of home game against higher seed
12. Colorado State	Still needs to do something in MWC
13. Creighton	Better not lose early in MVC tourney
14. Manhattan	Tripped up Siena in MAAC final
15. Toledo	Best of a weak MAC to this point
16. Texas San-Antonio	Won Southland regular season, but not a lock in conference tourney

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.