A couple of bubble teams lost at home Wednesday, but one team contending for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament picked up a big win on its home floor.
In a "double-bubble" game, Wisconsin completed a season sweep of Penn State with a 79-74 victory in Happy Valley. It was a big win for the Badgers, who have had kind of a weird season. They are now 7-5 away from home against teams in the top three quadrants, but only 2-4 at home. They also play a lot of close-margin games, which is likely why they rank 72nd in the NET this morning.
For Penn State, this loss drops them to 14-10 overall and while the Nittany Lions have a few good wins, most notably at Illinois, it is not enough to give them strong bracket consideration at this time. I'm not taking them off the bubble yet because they are not far from getting back into the bracket, but it is going to take a better run of play.
West Virginia took care of business at home and defeated Iowa State 76-71 to improve its record to 5-9 against Quadrant 1 teams with no losses outside that group. The win boosted the Mountaineers into the top 20 of the NET, for what that's worth.
Virginia Tech took the most damaging loss of the evening though. The Hokies lost at home to Boston College, giving the Eagles a season sweep and handing Virginia Tech an unwelcome Quad 3 loss. Both of the Hokies' losses outside the top two quadrants are to BC. They now enter a stretch of four out of their next six games on the road.
NCAA Tournament locks
Locks based on resume: 5 | Bids secured: 0 | At-large spots remaining: 31
| Conference | Locks | Teams |
|---|---|---|
ACC | 0 | |
Big East | 0 | |
Big Ten | 1 | |
Big 12 | 2 | |
Pac-12 | 0 | |
SEC | 2 | |
American | 0 | |
Others | 0 |
On the cut line
| Last Four In | Record | NET |
|---|---|---|
| Clemson | 18-6 | 69 |
| Arkansas | 17-7 | 23 |
| Oklahoma State | 15-9 | 35 |
| West Virginia | 15-9 | 19 |
| First Four Out | Record | NET |
| Penn State | 14-10 | 62 |
| Seton Hall | 15-10 | 58 |
| Wisconsin | 14-9 | 72 |
| Virginia Tech | 14-10 | 55 |
| Next Four Out | Record | NET |
| Mississippi State | 16-8 | 47 |
| Utah State | 19-6 | 33 |
| Arizona State | 16-8 | 70 |
| Texas A&M | 17-7 | 37 |
Check out all the teams on Palm's Bubble Watch, the field of the 68 and the entire bracket on the Bracketology hub
Thursday's 'Double Bubble' game
USC at Oregon
11 p.m. | ESPN2, fuboTV (Try for free)
 | |
| USC has been coming on strong with six wins in its last seven games. Among those are victories over UCLA and at fellow bubbler Arizona State. The metrics are still not kind to the Trojans, in part because of the relative lack of strength in the Pac-12 and in part because of a season-opening home loss to Florida Gulf Coast, coach Andy Enfield's old school. This would be a good win to steal on the road. | |
 | |
| While this would be a big win for USC, this game is more important to the Ducks. Oregon has had a hit-and-miss season and it's obvious on their tournament resume. The Ducks have two losses each in Quad 2 and Quad 3 to go along with a 3-6 record in Quad 1. The dominant home win over Arizona stands out, but it is not enough to overcome everything else. | |
Other bubble teams in action Thursday
| |  |
| At Ohio State, 8 p.m. | FS1 , fuboTV (Try for free) – The Wildcats have played just over a third of their games so far against teams in Quad 4, so they need to continue to do well against the rest of their schedule. For now, it has been good enough, but they are 8-7 against the top three quadrants, so there isn't too much of a margin for error there. The Buckeyes have lost nine out of ten, but the game right before that stretch was a 73-57 victory at Northwestern. | |
| |  |
| At Stanford, 10 p.m. | FS1 , fuboTV (Try for free) – The Sun Devils have lost five of their last six and now begin a four-game stretch against non-contenders. Even though two of those are on the road, Arizona State may have to win all of them because its last three regular-season games are at Arizona, UCLA and USC. | |
All references to NCAA Tournament selection records and trends refer to pre-pandemic tournaments. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of nonconference games in 2021, those rankings were not reliable enough to be considered.
