With Sunday marking exactly one month remaining until Selection Sunday, we figured there was no better time to bring back the daily feature from the past two seasons: "Poppin' Bubbles." If you're not familiar with it from past seasons, it's essentially a bubble breakdown of the day's action, going through the winners and losers and what each bubble outcome means going forward. Monday was the perfect start to the 2013-14 version.
For the most recent Bracketology updates from CBSSports.com, check out Jerry Palm's latest projected bracket.
Winner
Baylor: Despite Baylor starting out 2-8 in the Big 12, the Bears have played themselves right back into consideration for the NCAA tournament. They picked up a huge win on Monday in overtime over Oklahoma State, bring their winning streak to three games. Moreover, a sweep of the Cowboys could help come March with the pecking order of the Big 12. Baylor is still only 5-8 in the league, but it now has five top-50 wins overall -- including non-league wins over Kentucky and Colorado. There is only one sub-100 loss on the resume, and the way Texas Tech is playing lately, that might not be a sub-100 loss by the end of the season. Right now, the Bears are either "last four in" or "last four out" of most projected brackets, so a finishing stretch that includes three of five games on the road will determine their fate.
Losers
Oklahoma State: That's now seven losses in a row for the Cowboys, which went 0-3 while Marcus Smart was suspended. He returns for the Texas Tech game this weekend, but Oklahoma State is in a huge hole. They are just 3-9 against the top 50 after Monday's loss to Baylor, a game that also dropped Oklahoma State to 2-6 on the road. How will the committee view these three games without Smart, though? There will certainly be some consideration given to his absence, but Oklahoma State had lost four in a row with him before the suspension. The next two games -- Texas Tech, TCU -- should be wins, which likely puts them squarely on the bubble heading into their final three games: Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State.
Florida State: The Seminoles are fading quickly. They weren't in most projected brackets heading into the day, and a loss to North Carolina was their sixth defeat in the past eight games. Florida State is just 2-7 against the top 50 of the RPI, with the wins coming in the non-conference portion of the season against Atlantic 10 foes VCU and Massachusetts. Leonard Hamilton's team needs to turn things around beginning this weekend at Pittsburgh -- and even that might not be enough. If Florida State wins the next three, it will have some momentum heading into the season finale against Syracuse.
