Today’s Bracketology for February 25, 2021
Notes:
- As good as Tuesday was for the Bubble teams in action, Wednesday was just as bad in terms of outcomes for those Bubble teams in action.
- Indiana lost at Rutgers, Xavier lost at Providence, Seton Hall lost inside Hinkle Fieldhouse to a struggling Butler Bulldogs team, and North Carolina lost a nonconference home game to Marquette only added to the schedule just days prior.
- The one bright spot for a Bubble team was St. Bonaventure taking care of Davidson on the road, giving it another Quad 2 victory and reclaiming, for now, the lead in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
- Another bad loss saw Virginia falling at home to NC State, giving Virginia its second Quad 3 loss of the year.
- Game of the night was in Fayetteville where the Muss Bus rolled the Crimson Tide of Alabama. Solid, handle your business victories for Rutgers, Tennessee, Clemson, Florida St., and Creighton. In the deep heart of the Bubble, Memphis held serve at home against Tulane.
Bracket Notes:
- No changes to the top 2 seed lines even with the Alabama loss.
- Virginia drops a seed line to the back of the 4-seed line with the loss to NC State. Texas moves up to the 3-seed line
- Arkansas moves to the 5-seed line with the win over Alabama. This pushes Texas Tech to the 6-seed line.
- North Carolina losing to Marquette drops them a line to the 9-seed line as Oklahoma St. moves up.
- St. Bonaventure moves up to the 10-seed line with the win over Davidson coupled with Seton Hall’s loss to Butler.
- Colorado St. moves up to one of the last four byes and Minnesota joins the field as Seton Hall falls back to the last four in play-in round and Xavier falls out of the field.
Bracket Games for 2/25/21
Nebraska at Illinois (2-seed, #5) – Illini look to rebound after the Michigan St loss
Western Kentucky (13-seed, #52) at Houston (2-seed, #8) – good nonconference test for both teams; a Hilltopper victory could open a window to a possible at large consideration if they lose the CUSA tournament
Iowa (3-seed, #10) at Michigan (1-seed, #3) – game of the night potential; Iowa would make a strong case for the 2-seed line with a win
Santa Clara at Gonzaga (1-seed, #1) – ho-hum, the Gonzaga train should keep rolling along
UCLA (10-seed, #37) at Utah – sneaky game for the Bruins who are comfortably in the field but don’t want to make things worse for themselves
Boise St (9-seed, #33) at San Diego St (7-seed, #27) – good battle out in the MWC; the winner will be super-comfy in the field and in the MWC driver’s seat, the loser only slightly less so
Northwestern at Minnesota (12-seed play-in, #48) – the “back-in-the-field” Gophers welcome Northwestern to the Barn where all they do is win, but a loss here would severely damage already iffy Bubble hopes
Ohio St (1-seed, #4) at Michigan St (next eight out, #79) – Sparty could keep the redemption tour going with another top-10 win at the Breslin Center, in which case Izzo in March could very well have new life
Oregon (11-seed, #41) at Stanford (next eight out, #76) – a play-in type game for these two Pac 12 sides; Stanford needs this one more than Oregon, but the loser here will not feel very good about its Bubble life
USC (4-seed, #13) at Colorado (6-seed, #24) – good one out West, both teams comfortably in the field but Colorado would add a significant win to its resume here; USC is pretty much lock city for the Tournament
Dubz on Hoops 