(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)
Monday was a quiet day in terms of bracket impact — unless you’re a fan of James Madison and Samford, in case it was one of the loudest days in recent memory.
James Madison, which opened the season with a win at Michigan State, started 14-0 and now has the nation’s longest winning streak at 13. The 31-3 Dukes were flirting with single-digit seeding territory back in early January, when they also cracked the top 20 of the AP poll. We’ve got them as a No. 12 seed — 22 of those wins were in Quad 4, and another came against a non-Division I team — and if that’s the case, the Dukes could end up being one of the trendiest first-round upset picks of all time. Right now we have James Madison matchup with Clemson; other teams on the No. 5 line who wouldn’t want to see the Dukes include South Carolina, Auburn and Utah State.
Samford is another team that’s won a lot of games. The Bulldogs are 29-5 and have lost just three times since Nov. 10. They’re also coming out of the SoCon, which has been frisky in the NCAA Tournament many years. That’s the league that produced Furman,…
