Livescore
It is the penultimate day of the season, and we have just one day until Selection Sunday. Here are some of the things I am keeping an eye on during Saturday’s busy slate.
The battle for the final No. 1 seed comes down to Purdue vs. UCLA. The Bruins are already without Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Jalen Clark. Then, in Friday’s Pac-12 semifinal against Oregon, Adem Bona went down with an apparent shoulder injury and did not return. UCLA won comfortably anyway.
The Bruins will face Arizona for the Pac-12 Tournament championship Saturday. A victory for the Bruins could secure a No. 1 seed, but it may still depend on what Purdue does.
The Boilermakers got by their old nemesis Rutgers on Friday and will play potential bid-stealer Ohio State in the Big Ten semifinals this afternoon. The Buckeyes are the No. 13 seed and have won three straight games to get here. Friday, they took down No. 4 seed Michigan State.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
Bubble teams will be closely monitoring the Conference USA final today between Florida Atlantic and UAB. The Owls are likely an at-large team win or lose, but UAB has to win to be a potential bid-stealer. At the moment, it would be Rutgers’ spot in the bracket at stake.
NCAA Tournament locks
Locks based on résumé: 28 | Automatic bids secured: 14 of 32 | At-large spots up-for-grabs: 8
|
ACC |
3 |
Miami, Virginia, Duke |
|
Big East |
4 |
Marquette, UConn, Xavier, Creighton |
|
Big Ten |
5 |
Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State, Iowa, Northwestern |
|
Big 12 |
6 |
Baylor, Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU |
|
Pac-12 |
2 |
Arizona, UCLA |
|
SEC |
5 |
Alabama, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Missouri, Kentucky |
|
American |
1 |
Houston |
|
Others |
2 |
Saint Mary’s, San Diego State |
On the cutline
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 Saturday
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.
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