Bracketology 2020: Florida, Houston, and USC among biggest winners

TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 24: The Houston Cougars celebrates a three pointer scored by Armoni Brooks #3 (not pictured) during the second half of the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at BOK Center on March 24, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

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LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 21: Nick Rakocevic #31 and Jonah Mathews #2 of the USC Trojans (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

USC Trojans – 15-3 (4-1)

Current NET ranking: 46

Is the Pac-12 improved from last season? Of course. But not to the point where the middle-tier can slide into the NCAA Tournament without getting a few top-tier wins. And with Arizona, Washington, and even Oregon to a degree not being top-10 nationally all the time, there aren’t many chances to shift the tide.

Coming into the weekend, USC was a team right on the cut-line, landing in one of the last four at-large spots, according to our latest Bracketology. With their only notable win (LSU) being offset by a bad loss (Temple), there’s not much else the Trojans have going for them. Playing four of the five worst teams in the Pac-12 so far also doesn’t benefit their metrics either.

It looked like USC was still going to be searching for a quality win in the conference, trailing in the final minute at home against Stanford. But the Trojans somehow managed to push the game into overtime, before upsetting the Cardinal, 82-78. It was a massive win over a team who at the time was No. 9 in the NET rankings. It pushed USC inside the top-50 of the NET and still on the right side of the bubble.

Next. Biggest takeaways of the week. dark

There is still plenty of work for the Trojans going forward, with road matchups against Oregon and Oregon State coming up. If they can beat the Ducks in Eugene on Wednesday, the Pac-12 can feel better about getting four teams into the NCAA Tournament.

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