There were only two bubble games Monday, but they resulted in a change in the bracket.
Virginia got obliterated at Virginia Tech 75-41, which cost the Cavaliers nine places in the MOV-based NET rankings. Fortunately for Virginia, it only counts as one loss. The Cavaliers get North Carolina at home Saturday.
Texas beat Kansas State 62-56, which only adds a Quad 3 win to their resume. It was important though because their next four games are at Kansas, at Texas Tech, home vs. Oklahoma State and at Baylor. Yikes.
Texas moved up to a No. 9 seed in Tuesday's bracket, displacing Virginia, which is now a No. 10 seed.
There are five games involving teams on the bubble on tap for Tuesday, including a "Double bubble" game in the ACC. Two of the others are in the must-win category.
Check out all the teams on Palm's Bubble Watch, the field of the 68 and the entire bracket on the Bracketology hub
Tuesday's 'double bubble' game
7 p.m. | ACC Network, fuboTV (Try for free)
| The Panthers have been trying to get back into contention for a spot in the field. They have some nice wins, including at Duke and Virginia and they won the first meeting between these two teams. However, they are suffering from a very poor nonconference schedule, which means they have to really impress in conference play. These next three games will go a long way to deciding if Pitt can be an at-large team. | |
| The Demon Deacons have a borderline Quad 1 win over Florida at home, but are just 5-9 against the top two quadrants and have been especially bad away from home. Tuesday's game at home to Pitt is not a big résumé builder, but it is not a game Wake can afford to lose. | |
Bubble teams in action Tuesday
| at Villanova, 7 p.m. | FS1, fuboTV (Try for free) -- Butler lost home games to Marquette and Creighton last week giving the Bulldogs road-and-road splits with those teams. There are not many bubble teams with wins as good as those road wins. Their problem is that they are 9-10 against the top three quadrants and teams below .500 against that group rarely get into the tournament. Providence and West Virginia did last season, but they were the first two since 2018. | |
| vs. Arkansas, 7 p.m. | ESPN, fuboTV (Try for free) -- You never know what you're going to get from the Aggies. They'll beat Tennessee one day and lose to Vanderbilt the next. Of their ten losses, they have five in Quad 1 and four in Quad 3. If they could ever start stringing some wins together, they could move up the bracket in a hurry. The good news is that this is their last chance in the regular season to lose another Quad 3 game. | |
| vs. San Jose State, 10:30 p.m. | FS1, fuboTV (Try for free) -- Boise State should make the tournament if it can avoid the potential bad losses that remain on its schedule. This is one of those games. It is a potential Quad 4 loss and this would be a bad time for them to get their first of those. | |
| vs. Wyoming, 11 p.m. | CBS Sports Network -- Nevada is in the same position as Boise State. If the Wolf Pack can avoid the Quad 3 and 4 losses, they should be comfortably in the field. Tuesday's game is the first of three such games left on their regular season schedule. | |
NCAA Tournament locks
Locks based on resume: 11 | Bids secured: 0 | At-large spots remaining: 21
| Conference | Locks | Teams |
|---|---|---|
ACC | 2 | Duke, North Carolina |
Big East | 2 | UConn, Marquette |
Big Ten | 1 | |
Big 12 | 4 | Houston, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas |
Pac-12 | 1 | Arizona |
SEC | 1 | Tennessee |
American | 0 | |
Others | 0 |
Near the cut line
| First 4 Out | Team | Record | NET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati | 16-9 | 37 | |
| Gonzaga | 20-6 | 23 | |
| Oregon | 17-8 | 62 | |
| Seton Hall | 17-9 | 63 |
| Next 4 Out | Team | Record | NET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wake Forest | 16-9 | 40 | |
| Pitt | 17-8 | 47 | |
| Providence | 17-9 | 60 | |
| Drake | 21-5 | 44 |
Note – all references to NCAA Tournament selection records and trends based on NET rankings excludes the 2021 tournament. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of non-conference games, those rankings are not reliable enough to be considered.