We haven’t played the first college basketball game of the season yet, but that isn’t keeping Joe Lunardi from compiling his first NCAA tournament bracket.
Lunardi is ESPN’s resident “bracketologist” and he’s been pretty accurate over the years with his NCAA basketball tournament projections.
On Wednesday, Lunardi has the Memphis Tigers as a #3 seed in the South Region, playing a first round game in Nashville against #14 seed Kent State.
If the Tigers are going to make the Final Four, they’ll have an incredibly difficult path according to Lunardi’s projections. He has North Carolina, the nation’s top-ranked team, as the #1 seed in the South.
Lunardi’s also has Kentucky as the #1 seed in the Midwest, Syracuse as the top seed in the East and Ohio State as the #1 seed in the West.
Based on his projections, Lunardi believes the Big East will once again have the most teams invited to the 2012 NCAA basketball tournament.
Lunardi has nine teams from the Big East making the field of 65, followed by the Big Ten with eight. The Big 12 and ACC each have six teams making the tournament according to Lunardi.
Memphis is ranked No.9 in the ESPN Coaches poll entering the season and is a huge favorite to win Conference USA.
In Other Memphis Tigers News
Tigers’ coach Josh Pastner received a huge commitment from one of the nation’s best prep basketball players on Tuesday.
William Goodwin, who’s nickname is “Shaq,” is listed at 6-8 and 235 pounds, but weighs more than that. Goodwin is ranked as the No.24 overall prospect by Scout and is ranked No.26 overall by Rivals.
Goodwin says he wants to play football and basketball, which is just fine with Pastner and especially Memphis football coach Larry Porter, whose team needs all the help they can get.
There’s a video of Shaq Goodwin you can watch at the Memphis Edge with highlights from a game in which he scored his 1000th career point.
The Tigers will find out this week if they’ll have a top five recruiting class when Alex Poythress and Jarnell Stokes announce their decisions.
Poythress and Stokes are each ranked among the top 20 prep basketball players in the nation. Poythress has Memphis among his final group that includes Florida, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
Stokes plays for Southwind High School in Memphis and has long been considered leaning toward the Tigers. Arkansas and Tennessee have been recruiting him but insiders believe he’ll commit to Memphis.
