Livescore
There was a full slate of bubble games on Wednesday night that will likely shake up the bottom of the bracket on Friday. We are nearing the end of the regular season, so opportunities for résumé-building wins for teams on the bubble are in increasingly short supply. Some bubble teams are facing must-win situations from here on out.
While the bubble mostly takes a break for the next couple of days, here is a look at the biggest winners and losers from Wednesday’s eventful slate of games, many of which featured teams near the cut line.
Winners
Arkansas
The double-bubble feature of the evening was in Fayetteville, where the Razorbacks led Texas for almost all of regulation before needing overtime to come away with an 86-81 victory. That is a good win for Arkansas over a fellow resident of the cut-line neighborhood, but more importantly, it is a sweep of the regular-season series between the two. That could be quite important if the committee has to choose between them. The Razorbacks still have games at South Carolina and Vanderbilt before finishing at home with Mississippi State. The job isn’t done yet.
Vanderbilt
The Commodores picked up the highest-ranked win of the evening with an 86-84 win at projected 2-seed Texas A&M. That is easily their best win of the season. Vandy also has wins over Tennessee, Kentucky and Ole Miss, all at home. Because they are in the SEC, there is still work to do for the Commodores, but the job just got easier. Vanderbilt faces Missouri and Arkansas at home next before the regular-season finale at Georgia.
Boise State
The Broncos picked up their second win in three games over top teams in the Mountain West by beating Utah State, 82-65. That win and the win over New Mexico last week are both Quad 2 games, which illustrates part of the problem for bubble teams in the league. There are no Quad 1 home games. Boise State has a neutral site win over West Coast champion St. Mary’s and beat Clemson at home in nonconference play. The Broncos also have a pair of Quad 3 losses. The rest of the regular-season schedule is must-win: at Fresno State, at Air Force, home to Colorado State.
Losers
Wake Forest
Two weeks ago, the Demon Deacons were facing a schedule set up for success. They had four winnable games against ACC also-rans with a tough road trip to SMU interspersed. A road trip to Duke followed. Well, Wake won at SMU but lost to the three also-rans, and now it is hard to see a reasonable path to the tournament without beating Duke. Good luck with that. They lost at home to Virginia 83-75 to cap off a disastrous couple of weeks.
Texas
As noted above, the loss to Arkansas means the Longhorns were swept by the Razorbacks. They now sit at 16-12 overall, 9-12 against the top three quadrants. Texas is going to have to finish strong to make the field. Counting the SEC Tournament, the Longhorns probably have to find three more wins. The regular season still has home games with fellow bubblers Georgia and Oklahoma surrounding a trip to Mississippi State. If Texas does not make the field, it will probably be because of last Saturday’s loss at South Carolina.
Oklahoma
The Sooners could not quite pull off the upset of Kentucky, falling short 83-82 when former Sooner Otega Oweh scored the go-ahead and then blocked Oklahoma’s final shot to preserve the win. The Sooners dropped to 17-11 overall and 5-9 in Quad 1. I expect they will still be in the bracket on Friday, but it is their remaining schedule that is concerning. Oklahoma finishes at Ole Miss, home to Mizzou and at Texas. That season finale could have a lot to say about the eventual fate of both teams.
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