Virginia Tech picked up a huge victory at home over Duke on Monday night, giving the Hokies another high quality win. Virginia Tech may be able to get in with a loss at Miami and in their first round ACC Tournament game, but until that opponent is known or they beat Miami, I am leaving the Hokies on the bubble. They moved up in the bracket to a No. 8 seed.
Texas tried to ruin Kansas' senior night, but came up short in a 80-70 loss. That dropped the Longhorns to 17-13 on the season with a game at home to West Virginia remaining before the Big 12 Tournament. Four games over .500 has been the historic minimum to get an at-large bid. That means either beating West Virginia or winning at least two games in the conference tournament. 18-14 or 19-15 may not be good enough anyway, but worse than that means a trip to the NIT. For the moment, Texas is out of the bracket and Syracuse is back in as the last team.
The Longhorns came up short in another way. Mo Bamba injured his toe in the win over Oklahoma State and missed the second half of that game and the loss at Kansas. The committee does consider injuries, but losses are losses. They do not ignore them and they do not assume a team would have won if healthy. They come into play in seeding, not selection, meaning a team has to put together a good enough resume to get selected regardless of roster issues. The impact on seeding is minimal, but the committee does put a little more weight on how a team played with the roster they are taking into the tournament. I have never seen a seed moved more than one line due to a player getting hurt or returning from injury.
West Virginia knocked off Texas Tech 84-74 on Monday night. The Red Raiders were also shorthanded as three senior starters, including leading scorer Keenan Evans, sat out nursing injuries. The Mountaineers climbed up to a No. 3 seed in Tuesday's bracket while Texas Tech dropped to a No. 4 seed.
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at Alabama, 7 p.m. The Gators have the weirdest resume I have ever seen. In fact, I cannot find a similar one in my records. They have eight Quadrant 1 wins – only Kansas and North Carolina have more – but they also have seven Quadrant 2 losses, five of which have come at home. The only other team in the top 60 of the RPI with more than four is Tuesday's opponent, Alabama. The Gators are likely to need at least one more win, if not two, to feel comfortable on Selection Sunday. | |
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vs. Florida, 7 p.m Alabama has been pretty bad away from home this year, with only one win of any quality on the road. That came against Tuesday's opponent, Florida. The Tide are in the supposed comfort zone of their home floor, although that did not help last time out against Arkansas. Alabama has lost three straight and needs to stop the slide quickly before the slide into the NIT. | |
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at Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. Missouri is another of those middle of the pack SEC teams that cannot seem to find any consistency. The Tigers are trending badly though, with three straight losses that are among their worst of the season. The losses to LSU and Mississippi are two of their three worst in terms of RPI, while Kentucky ran them out of Rupp Arena on Saturday. I do not know if or when Michael Porter Jr. will play, but Mizzou needs to stop this trend one way or another. | |
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vs. Tennessee, 7 p.m., SEC Network Mississippi State played a terrible non-conference schedule and has not really be able to distinguish itself in the league. The Bulldogs have been a bad road team, losing seven of nine, but one of the wins came at fellow bubbler Texas A&M last Tuesday. They are at home vs. the Vols, looking for its first high quality win of the season. | |
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at Baylor, 9 p.m., ESPN2 The Sooners finally got off the schneid last week with a win at home over Kansas State. One win is not a trend though, so Oklahoma is not really back until it starts stringing wins together. Baylor has been pretty tough at home and needs this game too. | |
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at North Carolina, 9 p.m., ESPN Miami has a nice record with little of substance behind it. The Hurricanes have beaten a few of their bracket peers on the road though, which is good, but they lack the kind of win that gives themselves a chance at a good seed. A win over North Carolina would help a lot. | |
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at TCU, 9 p.m., ESPNU The Wildcats are only 3-8 vs Quadrant 1, but only have one loss outside of that. Despite their 6-4 road record, none of those have come against likely NCAA Tournament teams. In fact, they only have two home wins against likely tournament teams. Their best win so far came against the Horned Frogs at home. The Wildcats will try to better that tonight. | |
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vs. Davidson, 9 p.m., CBS Sports Network The Bonnies have crawled onto the bottom of the bracket, but cannot afford losses to non-tournament teams in the league if they intend on staying there. Davidson is tied with the Bonnies for second, so conference tournament seeding is also at stake. The Wildcats won the first meeting at home. | |
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at San Diego State, 11 p.m., CBS Sports Network Boise State is still hoping to make a run at an at-large bid, but its margin for error is gone. Simply put, the only team the Broncos can afford to lose to at this point is Nevada. | |
