We’re going to find out how Marquette starts off their fourth straight national championship tournament appearance later today!
Hello and welcome to Selection Sunday 2025!
Later today, we’re going to find out the full list of the 68 teams that will be participating in the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball national championship tournament. As Marquette fans, we can wait for the Selection Show this evening in relative peace as it’s a lock that the Golden Eagles will be in the field. It’s not quite the stone cold lock that we saw a year ago, but you can not build this field without putting MU in.
Here’s what Marquette’s general NCAA selection profile looks like this morning, although the committee has all but locked the 68 teams into the field already. Shouts to WarrenNolan.com for the team sheets with all the non-NET ranking info.
Record: 23-10
KenPom: #28
KPI: #30
BPI: #20
Strength of Record: #23
NET: #26
T-Rank: #31
Wins Above Bubble: #29
NET Record Breakdown
Quadrant 1: 6-8
Quadrant 2: 7-2
Quadrant 3: 5-0
Quadrant 4: 5-0
I do want to say this part out loud, because my brain always forgets that this is how this works. It always feels like “aw, man, what a drag, down to a #7 seed, man, we’re not that great, are we,” exceppppppt if you’re the worst #7 seed in the tournament, that means that you’re the #28 team in the country.
It’s weird how that works, huh?
As I look at it a little after 7am on Sunday morning in Milwaukee, Bracket Matrix isn’t showing me when the most recent update was posted. That’s weird. In any case, Marquette is listed here as the best #8 seed in the field by way of a compilation of 97 different bracket projections. They have an average seed of 7.40, which does mean that the average is closer to 7 than 8, but it is the 29th best average in the country right now. The other #8 seeds are Memphis, Connecticut, and Creighton. The #8 seeds get matched with the #9 seeds in the first round, and those teams are Mississippi State, New Mexico, Georgia, and Baylor.
If that’s how this shakes out, that’s fine. However, I have to point out that UConn, Creighton, and Georgia all falling in to this range does make things complicated for bracketing purposes as Marquette can not face any of them in the first round. If Marquette’s a #8 and all three of those teams end up at #9, then by default, MU has to get the fourth #9, no matter who it is….. or the selection committee starts pushing teams up and down a seed line to fix their problems.
St. John’s is the only other Big East team in the field according to the Bracket Matrix compilation. The Red Storm are the last #2 seed with a seed average of 2.08 here. Xavier appears on just 34 of the 97 brackets with a seed average of 11.29. That average would be good enough to get in, as it’s better than both San Diego State (11.07) or Indiana (11.16), but those two teams appear on 74 and 61 projections respectively. As such, they are more likely to get in according to the hive mind here.
2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show
Date: Sunday, March 16, 2025
Time: 5pm Central
Television: CBS
Streaming: March Madness Live