Bracketology Bubble Watch: Kentucky picks up win vs. Mississippi State, USC takes on Cal

Kentucky picked up a win at fellow bubbler Mississippi State on Wednesday night. That put the Wildcats back in the field for now. They now get three of their next four at home, starting with the rematch with Tennessee.

Arkansas lost at Texas A&M playing mostly without Nick Smith, who logged just four first half minutes. The Razorbacks need him back and functioning very soon or they may run out of chances to stay in the field. They have what should be a couple of relatively easy home games against Florida and Georgia before back-to-back tilts with Alabama and Tennessee on the road. 

The Pac-12 takes center stage Thursday with two of the three bubble games featuring teams from that league. Must win games all around..

NCAA Tournament locks

Locks based on résumé: 10 | Bids secured: 0 | At-large spots remaining: 31

On the cut line

Check out all the teams on Palm’s Bubble Watch, the field of the 68 and the entire bracket on the Bracketology hub  

Bubble teams in action Thursday

All references to NCAA tournament selection records and trends refer only to tournaments going back to 1994 with the exception of 2021. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of nonconference games in 2021, those rankings were not reliable enough to be considered.