It's December, but for ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi, it's never too early to think about March.

Lunardi, ESPN.com's resident "Bracketologist," released his first NCAA tournament projections Thursday, slotting the No. 20 Michigan basketball team as a No. 7 seed.

In Lunardi's projection, Michigan begin the tournament playing No. 10 Cleveland State in Columbus, Ohio.

Lunardi's early projection has eight Big Ten teams as tournament qualifiers, tied with the Big East for the most of any conference.

Other Big Ten teams in Lunardi's first bracket are Ohio State (No. 1 seed), Indiana (No. 4 seed), Michigan State (No. 4 seed), Wisconsin (No. 4 seed) Illinois (No. 6 seed), Northwestern (No. 10 seed), Purdue (No. 10 seed).

Lunardi, who actually teaches a course called "Fundamentals of Bracketology" at St. Joseph's University, has been predicting NCAA tournament brackets for ESPN since 2002. In the past eight seasons, he's averaged no more than one miss per year in his projections.

Michigan returns to the court Saturday when it hosts Alabama A&M (noon, Big Ten Network).

Nick Baumgardner covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2514, by email at nickbaumgardner@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @nickbaumgardner.

Want to stay connected to Wolverine basketball in your Facebook newsfeed? “Like” AnnArbor.com's Michigan Basketball News & Views.