It’s time for teams to start piling up for the final exam known as the selection on Sunday. While March Dawns on university basketball, support for the NCAA tournament reveals is just over two weeks old, and so many things are still in the air in terms of 68 teams.
The best teams in the country have solidified their places as a large -scale teams, and the action of the conference tournament will determine a number of automatic offers. But for the piece of teams that live life on the bubble, it’s time to do or die.
The way you play in recent times is not a metric that the selection committee provides. But the way you play recently has an impact on your CV as a whole, and some teams clearly tend in the right direction. Just look at Boisse State, for example. The Broncos are two games from the first at the Mountain West, but loading hard in the right direction in the middle of a sequence of three consecutive victories.
Then, at the other end of the spectrum, there is Baylor. The Bears began the season classified n ° 8 in the AP survey, but slipped into the territory of the “first” in the middle of a sequence of three defeats which underlined the inconsistency of a season for a program which had emerged as a pre -eminent power of the Big 12 in recent years.
Bracketology: Houston is the most recent seed n ° 1 with the rise of the state of Michigan, making arguments according to the upper line
Jerry Palm
While we are entering another weekend in charge of university basketball, here is temperature control for some of the most important bubble teams in sport.
🔥🔥🔥 = aggressive trend in the right direction
🔥🔥 = move upwards
🔥 = Don’t spoil it
🧊 = cooling
🧊🧊 = move in the wrong direction
🧊🧊🧊 = Careening out of rails
State🔥🔥🔥 wood
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 11 (last four in)
Save: 20-8 (12-5 Mountain West)
Boisse State went up to “last four in territory” in the crochetology of Jerry Palm after three consecutive victories against part of the Mountain West competition. The Broncos have won seven of their last eight games since a 5-4 game at the conference, and their only defeat in this period is the quad 1 variety in the state of San Diego. After reaching two NCAA tournaments during his first 11 seasons, the coach of Boisse State Leon Rice has broncos about to dance in four consecutive years.
Vanderbilt🔥🔥
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 8
Save: 19-9 (7-8 sec)
An absence of marked non-conference victories meant that commodores should do more in a brutal second than some of their peers to reach the right side of the bubble. Mission accomplished, it seems. On Wednesday, Vanderbilt may have placed his CV in gold with a Victoire à Quad 1 in Texas A&M, while the Commodores improved at 19-9 (7-8 seconds) under the first-year coach Mark Byington. With matches winning against Missouri, Arkansas and Georgia, “Dores have a chance to continue to increase.
Xavier🔥
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 11 (last four in)
Save: 18-10 (10-7 Big East)
Xavier won four games in a row. Here is the problem: the four victories came against the four low teams in the Big East ranking. A home victory on January 25 on UCONN remains the only victory of the musketeers against a planned NCAA tournament team. Breaking Creighton at home on Saturday would greatly contribute to secure a place in the dance for the club of the coach Sean Miller.
Arkans🔥
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 11
Save: 17-11 (6-9 sec)
The Arkansas has a 6-4 file in its last 10 games since a 0-5 start. Consecutive victories on the Missouri and Texas have the Razorbacks in the planned field and outside “last four in territory” entering a match on the road to the SEC against the South Carolina of the last place on Saturday. The Razorbacks fence section also includes Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, which gives the coach John Calipari a chance to fight in the playoffs with momentum.
North Carolina🔥
Bracker projection: The first four
Save: 18-11 (11-6 ACC)
North Carolina has won four consecutive games with its back against the wall, but these victories are only empty calories. Three of them were in quad 3 and the other was quad 2. UNC remains only 1-10 in Quad 1 and has only one more Q1 match on the file – the final of the regular season against Duke n ° 2 – before the ACC. The following two are in 4 (against Miami) and Quad 3 (at Virginia Tech). Even if the UNC manages the Hurricanes and the Hokies to enter the Duke confrontation on a sequence of six consecutive victories, he could still require a victory to save his hopes.
Indiana🔥
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 11 (last four in)
Save: 17-11 (8-9 Big Ten)
Mike Woodson’s gearbox race in Indiana feels familiar to Dan Monson, who did the tournament in 2024 after the outing plan
Cameron Salerne
The hopes of the Hoosiers tournament seemed dyingly not long ago after a period of seven defeats in eight games. But Indiana has resumed the “last four in territory with three victories in its last four games under the lame coach Mike Woodson. The next few days are massive for the Hoosiers, who make their only trip on the road on the west coast of the season to face Washington on Saturday and Oregon on Tuesday.
Nebraska 🧊
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 10
Save: 17-11 (7-10 Big Ten)
Nebraska is a minor funk after loss consecutive to Penn State and against Michigan. Before the skid, the Cornhuskers won five of the six to revive their chances of the NCAA tournament. Now, a home match on Saturday with Minnesota looks like a must if they want to avoid painful regression at the Cup line. Since this team has already undergone a sequence of six consecutive defeats, things are fine. But last week left Nebraska without breathing too much.
Oklahoma or
Bracker projection: Seed n ° 10
Save: 17-11 (4-11 sec)
Oklahoma wasted a golden opportunity to win consecutive victories when it fell 83-82 in Kentucky on Wednesday. The Sooners have only 4-11 in play and lost six of their last seven. Although or remains in the projected field of Palm as seeded n ° 10, this team could be the ultimate case study in the will of the selection committee to include a team in general with a bad conference record. Even if the Sooners earn two of their last three, they will still only have 6-12 in the dry.
Texas🧊🧊
Bracker projection: The first four
Save: 16-12 (5-10 sec)
The Longhorns have lost five of their last six games and recently wasted an effort of 39 points of the first year phenomenon Tre Johnson in a defeat of 86-81 in overtime at Arkansas. Home matches against the other Georgia bubble teams and Oklahoma are among the last three Longhorns competitions before the SEC tournament. Between the two is a confrontation on the road with the state of Mississippi. It would be up to Texas to win two of these three if he wanted to escape “First Four Out Territory” entering the SEC tournament.
Wake Forest🧊🧊🧊
Bracker projection: Following four
Save: 19-9 (11-6 ACC)
The roller coaster route of Wake Forest is officially out of the rails after a quad 2 defeat at NC State last Saturday and a quad defeat 3 against Virginia on Wednesday. These defeats have defeated all the progress that the deacons demonstrate in a rare victory of the ACC quad 1 to SMU on February 15. Add a defeat at Home Quad 3 against Florida State on February 12, and Wake Forest lost three of the four games at the wrong time. This is particularly exasperated for a program that regularly flirted with the big dance under the fifth year coach Steve Forbes while finding himself on the wrong side of the bubble.
Baylor🧊🧊🧊
Bracker projection: The first four
Save: 16-12 (8-9 Big 12)
Baylor is in free fall, after dropping three consecutive games. Among the imperfections of the Bears is a loss at Logly Colorado, which entered 1-14 in conference action. It is improper of a team who wants to go dancing. A Home Victory Quad 3 against Oklahoma State on Saturday will not move the needle for a team that slipped into the territory “First Four Out” in the Jerry Palm range. Suddenly, a sequence of five consecutive appearances of the NCAA tournament seems very well in danger.
