North Carolina escaped Notre Dame with a 63-59 win at Notre Dame to lead Wednesday's action involving teams on the bubble to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
With the victory vs. the Irish, the Tar Heels avoided adding a bad loss to a tournament résumé where the best thing you can say about it is that it has no bad losses on it. The Tar Heels get a shot at the elusive Quad 1 win next when they host Virginia on Saturday.
Also Wednesday:
- Boise State dealt a blow to New Mexico's fading tournament hopes while boosting its own in an 82-77 win over the Lobos in the only "Double Bubble" game of the day. New Mexico has some bad losses to overcome and is running out of time. For the Broncos, they have a couple of Quad 3 losses dragging them down some, but it helps that the win over Texas A&M looks better every day.
- Wisconsin won at home! The Badgers pounded Iowa 64-52 to pick up just its fourth win in nine tries against teams in the top three quadrants. Wisconsin's MOV-based metrics are dragging, especially the NET, but they are right around 40th in those that attempt to measure the quality of a team's resume. That's why the Badgers resume looks better than the metrics might indicate. They still have a ways to go if they hope to make the NCAA Tournament.
There are four games Thursday involving bubble teams, including a team close to the cut line from either side of it.
NCAA Tournament locks
Locks based on résumé: 17 | Bids secured: 0 | At-large spots remaining: 36
| Conference | Locks | Teams |
|---|---|---|
ACC | 1 | |
Big East | 3 | |
Big Ten | 2 | |
Big 12 | 4 | |
Pac-12 | 2 | |
SEC | 2 | |
American | 1 | |
Others | 2 |
On the cutline
| Last Four In | Record | NET |
|---|---|---|
| Mississippi State | 18-10 | 42 |
| USC | 19-8 | 54 |
| New Mexico | 20-8 | 47 |
| West Virginia | 16-12 | 26 |
| First Four Out | Record | NET |
| Wisconsin | 16-11 | 72 |
| Penn State | 16-11 | 57 |
| Wake Forest | 17-11 | 81 |
| North Carolina | 17-11 | 48 |
| Next Four Out | Record | NET |
| Utah State | 22-7 | 31 |
| Arizona State | 19-9 | 70 |
| Oregon | 15-13 | 50 |
| Seton Hall | 16-12 | 71 |
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 Thursday
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| at Ohio State, 6:30 p.m. | FS1, fuboTV (Try for free) – The Nittany Lions have not been a good road team, but they cannot afford to just win their home games. Ohio State has been reeling for a couple of months so this is Penn State's best chance left to get a road win. There are no easy games left though, home or away. | |
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| at Wichita State, 7 p.m. | ESPN2, fuboTV (Try for free) – The Tigers may be able to make the NCAA Tournament without beating Houston, even if they get three cracks at the Cougars. However, in order for that to be possible, Memphis has to win all of its other games. The Tigers have two out of three on the road before getting a rematch with Houston to end the regular season. | |
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| vs. Michigan, 8:30 p.m. | FS1, fuboTV (Try for free) – Rutgers won at Wisconsin over the weekend to end a three-game losing streak. Now, the Scarlet Knights have to take care of business on their home floor against the Wolverines. Rutgers lost its most recent home game to Nebraska, which has been road kill for most of the Big Ten season. | |
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| at Colorado, 9 p.m. | ESPN2, fuboTV (Try for free) – Life on the road isn't easy in any conference, but the Trojans have to find a way to win anyway. The Colorado-Utah road trip brings Quad 1 opportunities, which are always welcome. Their strength of schedule is relatively poor compared to the teams they are competing with for a spot in the field, so the Trojans need to get as many quality wins as they can to overcome that and a couple of bad losses. | |
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.
