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Bracketology Losers: Temple, Utah State and Virginia Tech falls this week

By Tristan Freeman

BLACKSBURG, VA - DECEMBER 05: Virginia Tech Hokies head coach Buzz Williams reacts in the first half of the game against the VMI Keydets at Cassell Coliseum on December 5, 2018 in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Photo by Lauren Rakes/Getty Images)
BLACKSBURG, VA - DECEMBER 05: Virginia Tech Hokies head coach Buzz Williams reacts in the first half of the game against the VMI Keydets at Cassell Coliseum on December 5, 2018 in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Photo by Lauren Rakes/Getty Images) /
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ORLANDO, FL – MARCH 12: Mark Williams #10 of the Temple Owls drives on Daniel Hamilton #5 of the Connecticut Huskies during a semifinal game of the 2016 AAC Basketball Tournament at Amway Center on March 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
ORLANDO, FL – MARCH 12: Mark Williams #10 of the Temple Owls drives on Daniel Hamilton #5 of the Connecticut Huskies during a semifinal game of the 2016 AAC Basketball Tournament at Amway Center on March 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

Temple Owls

On Sunday, Houston and Cincinnati faced off in an entertaining battle of the top teams in the American Athletic Conference. The Cougars won in the end but both teams are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The 3rd place team UCF looks to be in solid shape for a bid as long as they don’t take a few bad losses the rest of the way.

When it comes to a fourth possible team, Temple 17-7 (7-4) has the clear best shot out of all of them. They have the lone conference win over Houston in their back pocket, with just a home defeat to Penn being the only “bad loss” on their current resume.

That was until this past Saturday when the Owls fell on the road by 18 points to Tulsa. The win gave the Hurricanes their fourth AAC win and put Temple in a tough spot.

Fran Dunphy’s team benefits from a weak bubble and the lack of bad losses helps them for the time being. But the remainder of the team’s conference schedule presents more problems and opportunities. The highest-rated game left is at home to UCF, with the rest filled with the middle-tier teams of the AAC (Memphis, UConn, South Florida, and SMU).

With the exception of Tulane at home, none of the remaining games wouldn’t throw the Owls off the bubble if they lost to them. However, beating those teams individually does little to help them out. Now it’s just about continuously winning the rest of the way to get the total number of wins to 21+, which should be good enough to get them in. But that Tulsa loss took away some needed breathing room.

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