Prominent teams took high-profile losses over the past week, and those results will naturally dominate bracketology conversations over the next few days.
It makes sense, of course.
Top teams such as Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego State, Duke, Maryland, West Virginia, and Penn State all fell over the past seven days. That’s big news.
But there was also plenty of movement around the cut-line.
For instance, the Big Ten likely saw two of its teams have their at-large hopes dashed, and a third is on life support after two losses this week.
Purdue and Minnesota are both on the outside looking as their overall records currently sit at just .500. While they both still have a chance to make the tournament, especially with a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to crack through the logjam of Top 30 teams ahead of them.
Rutgers may have been prematurely handed “lock” status as they aim for their first NCAA Tournament in 30 years. The Scarlet Knights lost to Michigan and Wisconsin this past week, and the loss to the Wolverines was the first loss all year at the RAC. The Knights still have tournament-caliber metrics and seven wins in Quadrants 1 and 2, but these defeats are cause for concern at the State University of New Jersey.
Still, the Big Ten is likely to get ten teams in the tournament, so perhaps there’s little need to shed a tear for the nation’s most prolific league.
Save the sadness for the Atlantic 10.
St. Bonaventure REALLY needed that one. Bonnies gut it out at home over Richmond. A-10 at-large hopes take a hit tonight with Rhode Island & Richmond losing, but neither team is out of it by any means. Some great basketball tonight.
— A10 Talk (@A10Talk) February 23, 2020
The A-10 is in danger of becoming a one-bid league after three all took bad losses on the week. With Dayton looking like a freight train with no sign of stopping, the A-10 Tournament might actually go chalk for once. That would make life extremely difficult for the rest of the league, as the A-10’s at-large resumes are looking particularly shaky at the moment.
In particular, VCU and Richmond are both probably out of it at this point. The Rams lost to Dayton and Saint Louis this week, extending their losing streak to four games. The skid comes at the worst possible time for Mike Rhoades’ team, which spent time in the Top 25 earlier this year. The Spiders, meanwhile, were sucker-punched on the road by St. Bonaventure.
Rhode Island, meanwhile, is still hanging on by a thread. An overtime road loss to Davidson was its only result this week. The Rams’ advanced metrics average out in the mid-40s, which puts URI right in the middle of the bubble conversation (and on the good side of it). But a lack of Quadrant 1 wins hurts their cause, as Rhode Island has just one such victory on the season. They must tread carefully going forward.
That’s just a small snapshot of the wild week that just transpired.
Of course, the biggest story of them all was the end of an undefeated run out west.