ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projects Huskies as 12-seed in NCAA tournament (plus my AP ballot and other links)

Washington’s home split against Colorado and Utah improved the Huskies’ NCAA tournament chances in the eyes of ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi.

The projection expert now has the Huskies making the NCAA tournament field as a No. 12 seed, playing against No. 12 seed Clemson in a play-in game in the first round. Lunardi projects Washington among the last four teams to earn at-large bids into the tournament. He includes eight Pac-12 teams in his projection: Oregon, USC, Arizona, Utah, California, Colorado, UCLA and Washington. And Oregon State and Stanford are each listed among the first eight teams to miss the cut.

--- The RPI doesn’t look as good for the Huskies. They fell from 55th to 72nd after the Utah loss -- though the Utes now sit at No. 17 -- and are now the Pac-12’s 11th-best team, RPI-wise. Only Washington State, at 167th, is outside of the top 72.

--- CBS bracketologist Jerry Palm lists Washington as the first team to be left out of the NCAA tournament field.

--- Here is my game story from UW’s 80-75 overtime loss to Utah on Sunday.

And here is my AP top 25 ballot for this week:

1. Oklahoma

2. North Carolina

3. Iowa

4. Kansas

5. Villanova

6. West Virginia

7. Xavier

8. Providence

9. Maryland

10. Texas A&M

11. Michigan State

12. SMU

13. Iowa State

14. Virginia

15. Baylor

16. Miami

17. Louisville

18. Arizona

19. Indiana

20. Kentucky

21. Purdue

22. Oregon

23. South Carolina

24. USC

25. Clemson

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 2:39 PM with the headline "ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projects Huskies as 12-seed in NCAA tournament (plus my AP ballot and other links)."