Bracketology 2021: Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Louisville among big winners

March Madness is coming. It’s so close we can almost taste it. By the end of the weekend, the calendar will read March and the real fun begins. It’s bittersweet to think back to one year ago as the entire NCAA Tournament was canceled just one week before it would all begin. We’re on the doorstep of that moment again, but this year it looks like we will get our 68 team showdown.

Even so, uncertainly has taken over the college basketball world. Programs continue to have weeks away from playing games and the standings in some conferences look wildly uneven due to these breaks. The national pandemic has caused havoc on the college basketball world, but at the very least we are playing games. There will be conference champions crowned in the next few weeks and in just over two weeks we will get a bracket.

The time until Selection Sunday continues to decrease, meaning the opportunities to make an impact become fewer and fewer. Many teams are seeing their regular seasons come to an end this weekend, with the rest coming in the next. The conference tournaments will be the final shot for some of these bubble teams to prove their worth; giving other teams a chance to solidify their seeding.

Last week, we saw a number of exciting games that had their effect on the bracketology landscape. At this time of year, it’s just as easy to watch your bracket hopes shatter and plenty of bubble teams faltered this past week. However, we’re going to focus on those who managed to take advantage, taking a closer look at some of the winners from this past week.

We proceed by looking at eleven winners, diving deeply into what this past week means for their bracketology stock and how they stack up moving forward.