Bracket 4 - Hottest Teams - Florida over Duke for Title (FF Auburn and Houston)

The bracket we will post her favors the hottest teams. This measures how many spots up or down a tam moved at www.kencom.com from early February .

Montana entered their first February game ranked 221st, and their only loss the rest of the way was an overtime game at Portland State, who they beat by double digits at home. Going 14-1 down the stretch included stunning Northern Colorado on the road, and then beating them in the Big Sky title game to advance. They have jumped 64 spots, more than any other team, to now rank 157th but they are obviously much better than that.

On the flip side Marquette comes in 68th, meaning they have been the coldest team in the tournament having dropped 16 spots to 28th, after being ranked as high as No. 4 in the polls early in the season.

We will post a bracket here favoring the teams going into the tournament hot.

This is the first of our blogs this year posted with the actual 68 teams. We had included 72 teams which included UAB, Boise State, Indiana and West Virginia, but those were the four eliminated.

The rankings of hot teams below includes the region and seed to help you find each team on your bracket.

Hottest	School, Rank & Record	Improved	Section	Seed
1	157 Montana (25-9)	64	East	14
2	139 Robert Morris (26-8)	52	East	15
3	156 Nebraska Omaha (22-12)	50	West	15
4	217 SIUE (22-11)	34	Midwest	16
5	42 Colorado St. (25-9)	31	West	12
6	121 Wofford (19-15)	29	Midwest	15
7	250 Mount St. Mary's (22-12)	24	East	16
8	98 Troy (23-10)	21	Midwest	14
9	40 Arkansas (20-13)	21	West	10
10	279 Alabama St. (18-15)	20	South	16
11	39 UC San Diego (29-4)	17	South	12
12	311 Saint Francis (16-17)	16	South	16
13	85 High Point (29-5)	15	Midwest	13
14	30 VCU (27-6)	12	East	11
15	9 Gonzaga (25-8)	12	Midwest	8
16	18 Clemson (27-6)	11	Midwest	5
17	1 Duke (30-3)	9	East	1
18	57 Drake (30-3)	9	West	11
19	2 Houston (29-4)	8	Midwest	1
20	41 New Mexico (26-7)	8	South	10
21	83 Lipscomb (25-9)	8	South	14
22	31 Oregon (24-9)	7	East	5
23	24 BYU (24-9)	7	East	6
24	62 Liberty (27-6)	7	East	12
25	3 Auburn (28-5)	7	South	1
26	11 Maryland (25-7)	7	West	4
27	33 North Carolina (22-13)	6	South	11
28	4 Florida (28-4)	6	West	1
29	12 Wisconsin (26-8)	5	East	3
30	5 Tennessee (27-6)	5	Midwest	2
31	8 Michigan St. (27-6)	5	South	2
32	6 Alabama (25-7)	4	East	2
33	43 Xavier (21-11)	4	Midwest	11
34	16 Kentucky (22-11)	3	Midwest	3
35	34 Georgia (20-12)	3	Midwest	9
36	23 Louisville (27-6)	3	South	8
37	46 San Diego St. (21-9)	3	South	11
38	7 Texas Tech (25-8)	3	West	3
39	37 Oklahoma (20-13)	3	West	9
40	15 Missouri (22-11)	2	West	6
41	14 Arizona (22-11)	1	East	4
42	22 Saint Mary's (28-5)	1	East	7
43	59 McNeese (27-6)	1	Midwest	12
44	13 St. John's (29-4)	1	West	2
45	104 UNC Wilmington (27-7)	1	West	14
46	27 UCLA (22-10)	0	Midwest	7
47	10 Iowa St. (24-9)	0	South	3
48	17 Texas A&M (22-10)	-1	South	4
49	149 Bryant (23-11)	-1	South	15
50	35 Connecticut (23-10)	-1	West	8
51	74 Yale (21-7)	-2	South	13
52	25 Mississippi (22-11)	-3	South	6
53	36 Creighton (24-9)	-4	South	9
54	97 Grand Canyon (25-7)	-4	West	13
55	20 Illinois (21-12)	-5	Midwest	6
56	26 Michigan (24-9)	-5	South	5
57	50 Vanderbilt (20-12)	-6	East	10
58	99 Akron (28-6)	-6	East	13
59	32 Mississippi St. (21-12)	-7	East	8
60	237 American (22-12)	-7	East	16
61	29 Baylor (19-14)	-8	East	9
62	51 Utah St. (26-7)	-8	Midwest	10
63	19 Purdue (22-11)	-9	Midwest	4
64	44 Texas (19-15)	-10	Midwest	11
65	52 Memphis (28-5)	-13	West	5
66	21 Kansas (21-12)	-13	West	7
67	180 Norfolk St. (24-10)	-13	West	16
68	28 Marquette (23-10)	-16	South	7