March Madness 2024 Bubble Watch: First Four In, Last Four Out, more on Feb. 13
Saturday marks a milestone in the college basketball season as the NCAA Tournament's Selection Committee reveals its mock bracket at 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS. The exercise is valuable to bracketologists since it reveals the Top 16 seeds if the season were to end today, providing valuable insight into what the committee values from teams in the March Madness field.
That information will also be important for teams on the bubble, who don't really know yet whether the committee puts more weight on quality victories or simply stacking as many wins as possible. With another week of movement in the books, let's take a look at how things stand in the world of the bubble watch after some significant movement from last week's column.
Note: Records/NET Rankings are current as of 2/13. Teams currently leading their respective conferences are not eligible for the bubble watch.
March Madness Bubble Watch: Last Four Byes
Team | Conference | Record | NET | Last Game | Next Game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Butler | Big East | 16-8 (7-6) | 50 | W 75-72 Vs. Providence | Vs. No. 4 Marquette 2/13 |
New Mexico | Mountain West | 19-5 (7-4) | 22 | L 80-77 Vs. UNLV | At Nevada 2/13 |
Virginia | ACC | 19-5 (10-3) | 32 | W 80-76 At Florida State | Vs. Pitt 2/13 |
Nebraska | Big Ten | 17-8 (7-7) | 53 | W 79-59 Vs. Michigan | Vs. Penn State 2/17 |
Butler's stock continues to rise as a nice win over Providence on Saturday made it five wins in their past six games. The lone loss came to No. 1 UConn, which is nothing to be ashamed of, and the week ahead offers some massive opportunities for the Bulldogs to solidify their at-large standing.
The Mountain West is loaded with potential land mines and New Mexico tripped on one when they lost at home to UNLV, which entered the game 12-9 and 5-4 in league play. The Runnin' Rebels have now swept the Lobos, which also accounts for the lone Quad 3 loss on New Mexico's resume, so that defeat could be costly if Richard Pitino's team slips up a few more times in league play.
Virginia maintains its upward trajectory by stacking wins in a bad ACC, racking up their eighth straight victory at Florida State on Saturday. Saturday's date against Wake Forest is important for bubble purposes but the more important game may be to beat Pittsburgh at home to avoid a Quad 2 loss, which would be the third of the season for the Cavaliers.
Nebraska snapped a two-game losing skid in emphatic fashion by blowing out Michigan over the weekend to improve to 7-7 in Big Ten play. The problem for the Cornhuskers is that they have just one win away from home, at Kansas State back in December, and the Selection Committee would like to see them get a win away from Pinnacle Bank Arena.