Boise State was the big winner last night, defeating San Diego State 66-60 at home for the Broncos' best win of the season. Boise State has now won four games at home over other tournament contenders in the Mountain West. The Broncos' last chance to get a road win against a tournament-caliber teams comes in the season finale at Utah State.
Clemson, meanwhile, lost out on an opportunity for its best win of the season in a 64-57 loss at Virginia. The most damaging thing about that loss is that the Tigers won't get another chance for a win like that unless they make a deep run into the ACC Tournament.
Tonight's bubble games are all road tilts for the bubble teams. Auburn and Penn State have great chances for higher-quality wins, but obviously, those will be difficult games.
NCAA Tournament locks
Locks based on résumé: 20 | Bids secured: 0 | At-large spots remaining: 36
Conference | Locks | Teams |
---|---|---|
ACC | 2 | |
Big East | 3 | |
Big Ten | 2 | |
Big 12 | 4 | |
Pac-12 | 2 | |
SEC | 3 | |
1 | ||
Others | 3 |
On the cutline
Last Four In | Record | NET |
---|---|---|
Mississippi State | 20-10 | 44 |
Wisconsin | 16-12 | 74 |
West Virginia | 17-13 | 23 |
Michigan | 17-12 | 55 |
First Four Out | Record | NET |
Oklahoma State | 16-14 | 47 |
Penn State | 17-12 | 60 |
North Carolina | 19-11 | 45 |
Arizona State | 20-9 | 61 |
Next Four Out | Record | NET |
New Mexico | 20-9 | 48 |
Utah State | 22-7 | 30 |
Clemson | 21-8 | 60 |
Oregon | 16-13 | 53 |
Check out all the teams on Palm's Bubble Watch, the field of the 68 and the entire bracket on the Bracketology hub
Bubble teams in action Wednesday
At Alabama, 7 p.m. | ESPN2, fuboTV (Try for free) – Higher-quality wins represent the biggest hole in Auburn's tournament résumé. The Tigers are 2-8 vs. Quad 1 opponents with the two wins coming over Arkansas at home and a neutral-site game with Northwestern. Tennessee is still on the schedule after tonight, so there are still chances to improve on that, but 2-10 vs Quad 1 could be a problem. | |
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At Northwestern 9 p.m. | Big Ten Network, fuboTV (Try for free) – The Nittany Lions blew a big lead and lost to Rutgers at home. That one is going to hurt. However, this is a chance for a better win -- one Penn State really needs. All 12 of the Nittany Lions' losses are in the first two quadrants, but they are only 7-12 vs. that group. They need a strong finish. | |
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At UNLV, 11 p.m. | CBS Sports Network (Channel finder | CBSSports.com | CBS Sports App) – UNLV has struggled this season, even on its home floor. Utah State cannot really do much to help its résumé in a game like this, but it can really do some damage. The Aggies are still looking for a Quad 1 win, but that will have to wait. |
All references to NCAA Tournament selection records and trends refer only to tournaments going back to 1994 with the exception of 2021. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of nonconference games in 2021, those rankings were not reliable enough to be considered.