Bracket - Accounting for Injury Impact - Yes Short-handed Kansas and Marquette Can Lose Opening Round

 

We closely monitor all injuries and the impact they can have on games. This is a bit of a "worst case" in which any key injured player either cannot play or tries to play but is very ineffective to potentially create a nightmare day for a team.

Here is the quick reference of brackets with the links to this and each of the other brackets.

The most dramatic injury impact in this tournament could be to Marquette and Kansas. The best two players for both teams are injured, and if neither can play (or try to play but clearly are well short at 100%) then both benches could be too short for even a first round win. Kansas seeding dropped enough due to the injuries that they are not that big a favorite over Samford anyway and could almost be an underdog without their big two. Marquette would still be a favorite against Western Kentucky, but they run the highest tempo games of anyone in the country and if Marquette's big two are gone with backup point guard Sean Jones already lost for a season and their other guards all seemingly nicked up - Marquette's bench could simply to too short for a high tempo game.