Men's March Madness bracket questions before Selection Sunday

We finally made it. Selection Sunday. Less than 24 hours until the men's NCAA tournament field is revealed and millions of fans around the country can furiously fill out their brackets.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The NCAA tournament selection committee still has a few boxes to check before its work is over.

This year the bubble is as crowded -- and arguably better -- than we've seen in some time, with conference tournament performances likely securing bids for some teams (Mississippi State, Colorado, among others) and putting seemingly safe teams into precarious positions (Seton Hall and Virginia, to name two).

And with surprising losses from 1-seeds on Saturday, the top of the bracket is featuring plenty of movement as well.

How will the committee sort through how things have played out, from the top of the bracket through to the teams around the cut line? Here are the biggest questions the members have to answer.

1. Which team is the overall 1-seed?

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Three 1-seeds have been determined for months, with Houston, UConn and Purdue separating themselves as the three best teams in the country. But what's the order? Purdue and Houston suffered losses on Saturday, with the Boilermakers losing in overtime of their Big Ten semifinal to Wisconsin and the Cougars taking a stunning 69-41 defeat to Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament championship.

Does that leave the Huskies as the last team standing in the debate? Dan Hurley's team has been the most dominant team for much of the season and is the only one of the three to win both the regular-season and conference tournament titles. Purdue has the best collection of wins, Houston is No. 1 in most metrics and has the most Quad 1 wins -- but UConn is No. 2 in Quad 1 wins, No. 1 in Quads 1 and 2 wins, No. 2 in the NET and No. 2 in KenPom. The tiebreaker could be the Huskies' conference tourney title.

2. Does Iowa State have a shot at the fourth 1-seed?

With North Carolina losing NC State in the ACC title game, there might be a debate for the fourth 1-seed. The Tar Heels appeared to lock up the final spot when Tennessee lost to Mississippi State and Arizona fell to Oregon on Friday, but ISU steamrolling Houston in the Big 12 title game opens things up for discussion.

The Cyclones rose into the top five at KenPom and they now have 10 Quad 1 wins. Only three teams in the country have more. They have two wins over Houston. Their big negative, however, is their nonconference SOS of 324. Carolina meanwhile, has a 9-3 record in Quad 1 and won 13 games away from home. The Tar Heels beat Tennessee and knocked off Duke twice.

Since opening the season with 13 wins in its first 14 games, Kansas went 9-9 over the final 18 games and lost four of its last five. McCullar, one of the biggest breakout stars in the country, has missed six games while managing a bone bruise on his knee, while Dickinson missed the team's 20-point loss to Cincinnati in the Big 12 tournament with a shoulder injury. Both are expected back for the NCAA tournament, but is either fully healthy? The Jayhawks have lost their past two games -- one that neither finished, and one that both missed -- by a combined 50 points. Kansas' résumé in totality portends a 4-seed, but will the committee ding the Jayhawks a bit more?

Conversely, Marquette's run in the Big East tournament without its star, Tyler Kolek, likely makes his injury fairly irrelevant to the selection committee. The Golden Eagles should be locked into a 2-seed regardless of how the committee factors in his timetable to return.

4. Is Florida Atlantic safely in despite its AAC tournament loss?

Last year's Final Four darling suffered a shocking semifinal loss to Temple on Saturday night, drawing the ire of bubble teams across the land. But is FAU itself safely in the field? Dusty May's Owls have taken a slew of bad losses, including Quad 4 defeats to Bryant and Florida Gulf Coast, and the loss to Temple goes in the Quad 3 category. They have only two Quad 1 wins, although a neutral-site victory over Arizona has staying power. Their metrics are likely good enough to get them over the line, but things are a little dicier than expected given their preseason top-10 status.

5. Which teams were most impacted by the rampant bid-stealing this weekend?

If you were a fan of a bubble team entering the weekend, Saturday was one blow after another. It started with Temple knocking off Florida Atlantic, likely ensuring a second bid for the AAC. NC State continued its magical run, capping its five-wins-in-five-days stretch by beating North Carolina to steal a bid. And then another bubble popped out west, when Oregon beat Colorado to win the Pac-12 tournament. And this was on top of Dayton losing earlier in the week to ensure the Atlantic 10 was a two-bid league. The number of available spots has shrunk by four since the start of Champ Week.

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Bracket math entering Sunday is a bit of a mess. Oklahoma, Michigan State, TCU, Colorado and maybe even Florida Atlantic -- five teams that appeared comfortably in as recently as Saturday afternoon -- are suddenly in the danger zone. But if all five are still in, there are zero spots up for grabs. That means St. John's, Virginia, Seton Hall, Providence, Pitt and Indiana State would all miss out. Or did Oregon ultimately take a bid away from the team it beat in the title game?

6. Does Indiana State have a prayer of getting in?

The Sycamores have generated more debate than any other bubble team since they lost in the Missouri Valley title game last weekend. Some of this stems from the cult following they had all season, due to the emergence of head coach Josh Schertz and star big man Robbie Avila; some of it stems from the conversation about gaudy mid-major vs. middling high-major profiles.

Do they ultimately get a bid? The résumé itself is uninspiring: one Quad 1 win, one Quad 4 loss, 1-4 against NCAA tournament teams. But the metrics are solid enough, including a NET ranking right around 30. Keep in mind -- as selection committee chair Charles McClelland specifically mentioned on a conference call Wednesday -- that starter Jayson Kent missed ISU's loss to Southern Illinois and most of the loss to Illinois State.

7. How does the committee separate the three Big East bubble teams: St. John's, Providence and Seton Hall?

Things got awfully crowded on the bubble thanks to the results of the Big East tournament. St. John's beat Seton Hall before losing to UConn; Providence won two games, including against Creighton, before losing to Marquette; and Seton Hall lasted only the loss to the Johnnies. It's hard to see all three getting in, but how will the committee separate the trio? The Pirates finished 13-7 in a double round-robin league, going 3-1 against the other two during the regular season before the tourney loss to the Johnnies. They beat UConn and Marquette and went 5-8 vs. Quad 1, but their metrics are by far the worst of the group (NET in the 60s, quality metrics in the 60s) and they're 11-12 against the first three quadrants. They went 0-2 without star Kadary Richmond.

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St. John's won six in a row before losing to the Huskies in the Big East semis and its metrics are dramatically ahead of those of the other two. On the downside, the Storm's only win over a surefire tournament team was Creighton.

Providence has six Quad 1 wins and zero losses in Quads 3 or 4, although the Friars are 10-13 against the first three quadrants overall. They have wins over Wisconsin, Marquette and Creighton (twice). They did go just 10-10 since Bryce Hopkins was lost for the season -- although they picked up four Quad 1s without him -- and they have very middling metrics.

It will be interesting to see where the Gamecocks land in the bracket. They have one of the more unique profiles we've seen in recent years. They finished tied for second in the SEC, just one game back of first. They have a top-10 strength of record and wins over Tennessee, Kentucky and Florida. But the negatives in their profile are really, really bad: NET in the 50s, quality metric average in the 50s, two Quad 3 losses, three losses by at least 27 points. It wouldn't be surprising if the committee gave them a 5-seed, or even dropped them as low as a 7- or 8-seed.

9. What does the committee do with the Mountain West?

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There's an argument to be made that no conference was as consistently exciting as the Mountain West over the final month of the season. It's only the seventh-best conference in the country in the NET, but it's very likely to receive six bids on Selection Sunday. But how does the committee view the individual résumés, which are by and large built off wins over each other?

San Diego State finished fifth in the league but will likely be the highest-seeded team on Sunday -- how high will that be? And how low will New Mexico, which was on the outside looking in until its conference tournament run, be placed? This league could have one team on every line from 5 to 10 or 6 to 11, and it wouldn't look out of place.

10. Which metrics matter most this year?

A team's NCAA tournament profile features dozens of items to consider: NET ranking, predictive metrics, strength of schedule, résumé-based metrics, wins, losses, record away from home, Quadrant information and more. As the committee has stated countless times, each person in the room will weigh certain parts of a profile differently than others.

The bubble features several prime examples. Providence has six Quad 1 wins -- only 12 teams in the country have more. Will that outweigh the Friars' middle-of-the-road metrics? Pittsburgh has an absolutely dreadful nonconference strength of schedule that's in the bottom 20 nationally, but the Panthers also have a 7-4 road record and solid metrics. Virginia has only two Quad 1 wins but zero bad losses.

Which metrics will be the biggest deciding factors on Sunday?