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2024 NCAA Tournament projections: Illinois, Kentucky on the rise; UConn, Marquette fall

College Basketball
Updated Dec. 22, 2023 1:47 p.m. ET

As the new year approaches and conference play gets underway, there is one word to accurately sum up the first seven weeks of the 2023-24 college basketball season:

Parity.

This past week alone, college hoops fans saw six teams ranked inside the top 25 fall, including four top-10 teams. The Big East headliners – UConn (5), Marquette (7) and Creighton (12) – all lost in a span of 24 hours, and all sit at 0-1 in conference play.

With that said, FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy is here to provide an updated look at his NCAA Tournament projections.

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Kansas (East),Houston (South), Purdue (Midwest) and Arizona (West) remain the top seeds in DeCourcy’s projections. The Boilermakers are fresh off a dominant 100-57 victory over Jacksonville, while Houston put together a great defensive performance in a 72-37 win over Texas State. In other action, Arizona notched an impressive 87-74 win over Alabama, while Kansas hosts Yale in a non-conference tilt on Friday night.

Illinois, Memphis and Kentucky jumped up in DeCourcy’s projections, joining Tennessee on the 2-seed line. Meanwhile, following unforeseen losses this week, both UConn and Marquette are listed as No. 3 seeds, along with Clemson and North Carolina.

Florida Atlantic, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Wisconsin appear as No. 4 seeds in DeCourcy’s latest bracket projections.

As for the teams on the bubble, DeCourcy has Kansas State, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech and Miami as his first four teams out of the tournament, while Missouri, Saint Joseph’s, George Washington and Butler make up his next four out.

The Big Ten and Big 12 have the most representatives in DeCourcy’s compilation, leading the way with eight teams, while the SEC has seven teams. The Big East and Mountain West have five teams represented, while the Pac-12 and ACC each have four. The AAC and Missouri Valley boast two apiece.

Here are the complete brackets from DeCourcy:

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