The losers of Thursday’s four double bubble games are all on the outside looking in on Friday morning. Seton Hall is the first team out, though, so the Pirates have the best chance of floating back into the field after their loss to St. John’s in the Big East quarterfinals.
With the loss by Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, we have our first bid-stealer of the season. Maybe it’s the second if Indiana State is an at-large team. All of the top four seeds in the A-10 Tournament lost on Thursday, including projected 10-seed Dayton.
Thursday’s bubble winners all get a chance on Friday at the kind of win that could seal the deal for them. Virginia is the only exception, needing to win the conference title in order to make the field. The Cavaliers face NC State on Friday after the Wolfpack stunned 2-seed Duke on Thursday.
Some of these teams may not have to win to stay in the bracket. The committee has to fill the bracket, and every team near the cut line on either side of it will lose its last game.
All times Eastern.
Check out Palm’s latest bracket, full field of 68 and Bubble Watch at the Bracketology hub
Bubble teams in action Friday
NCAA Tournament locks
Locks based on résumé: 31 | AQ bids secured: 14 | At-large spots remaining: 5
|
ACC |
3 |
Duke, North Carolina, Clemson |
|
Big East |
3 |
UConn, Marquette, Creighton |
|
Big Ten |
3 |
Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin |
|
Big 12 |
7 |
Houston, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, BYU, Texas Tech, Texas |
|
Pac-12 |
2 |
Arizona, Washington State |
|
MWC |
5 |
San Diego State, Utah State, Nevada, Colorado State, Boise State |
|
SEC |
6 |
Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida |
|
WCC |
2 |
Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga |
Near the cut line
Note – all references to NCAA Tournament selection records and trends based on NET rankings excludes the 2021 tournament. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of non-conference games, those rankings are not reliable enough to be considered.