Bracketology 2021: Ohio State, USC, and St. John’s among big winners

USC

In recent years, the Pac-12 has been a disappointing conference, especially in postseason play. The league hasn’t exactly put a slew of national contenders into the NCAA Tournament in recent years, but perhaps things are turning around? There’s no Baylor or Gonzaga in this year’s Pac-12, but there are a number of teams threatening to make the NCAA Tournament.

USC has certainly proven their case in recent weeks, taking it to another level this week. First, they took care of Stanford on Tuesday, with a 23-point, 11-rebound effort from Evan Mobley helping to get the job done against an improved Cardinal squad. On Saturday night, the Trojans dominated UCLA, not only winning by 18 points but pulling into a tie for the Pac-12 lead with the Bruins themselves.

At 15-3, USC looks like the best team in the Pac-12, especially with that 9-2 mark in conference play. They don’t have any horrific losses on their resume, but yesterday’s victory over the Bruins is their only ranked win to this point. Looking at this conference these days, they might not get another chance to get a quality win.

The Trojans have a lot of road games in the final month of Pac-12 play. Many of their remaining games will be tough tests, especially as USC hopes to rise up bracketology boards. Regardless, they looked the part of the conference’s best program this week, but who knows what next week will bring.

After another exciting week of college basketball, we’ve taken a look at ten winners and how they’ve helped their own causes. Anything can happen and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next with these ten programs. Who do you think will be next week’s winners?