2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket Watch: Purdue, Arizona, Houston, Kansas are top

We might remember 2023 as the year America went back to the movie theater. With high-profile releases from legendary directors and the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, the box office returned to pre-pandemic levels — even as a months-long strike halted the entertainment industry.

We here at Bracket Watch spent a fair amount of time at the movies this summer and fall, and our favorite cinematic experience involved a live concert film that got us dancing in our seats. No, not Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” or Beyoncé’s “Renaissance.” We’re talking about the restoration and re-release of Talking Heads’ 40-year-old masterpiece “Stop Making Sense,” which Roger Ebert once perfectly described as 90 minutes “of enormous energy, of life being lived at a joyous high.” We admired “Oppenheimer,” but we loved watching this lanky man in a gray suit:

And if you think about it, “Stop Making Sense” would make an excellent slogan for March Madness. Did anyone predict San Diego State and Florida Atlantic burning down the house, er, brackets on their way to the 2023 Final Four?

We can’t predict what’s going to happen in the rest of this already wacky season, but with the nonconference portion of the schedule mostly in the books and the new year almost here, we can start making sense of the 2024 NCAA Tournament field.

Stop talking, help us get ready. Fair enough. Let’s dive into the first edition of our weekly 68-team mocks — with some help from David Byrne and friends:

• Same as it ever was. You may ask yourself, who are the No. 1 seeds? Somehow the top five teams on our seed list are exactly the same as they were for us this time a year ago. They’re just in a different order, with Purdue the clear choice as the No. 1 overall seed thanks to its five Quad 1 wins, including a head-to-head victory over No. 2 overall, Arizona.

• Heard about Houston? Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars have drawn some criticism for their nonconference schedule, but they have four Quad 1 wins and three against the NET’s top 25 (Texas A&M, Dayton and Utah). Houston also ranks No. 1 in NET and KenPom — just like it did last Selection Sunday. Facts are simple, facts are straight. That’s why the Coogs get the No. 3 overall seed, ahead of Kansas, which has some shaky metrics (15th in NET, 16th at KenPom) but an excellent resume. UConn looked like a No. 1 seed for most of the first two months of the season, but Donovan Clingan’s injury and the lack of a top-25 NET win relegated the Huskies to the No. 2 line.

• What about the time you were rollin’ over? Michigan State slipped into the field despite its 7-5 record. The Spartans have played a top-10 schedule, have that blowout win over Baylor and rank in the top 25 in NET and KenPom. That gets them a No. 10 seed — two spots on the seed line behind James Madison. Remember, when you wade in the water of NCAA Tournament selection, who you beat and who you played are always high…