Bracketology 2023: UCLA, Kansas, and Creighton among week’s biggest winners

This was another week of importance regarding Bracketology, as Selection Sunday is just a month away. Some programs have made great strides in terms of improving their respective resumes, including the following 10 teams.

Here are my latest “Bracketology Winners” of the past week.

Missouri Tigers

The Tigers certainly aren’t in any danger of missing out on the NCAA Tournament despite the road loss at Mississippi State last weekend. For one, that’s a Quad 1 loss, and two, the Bulldogs have been playing great as of late. But Missouri had an opportunity this week to either boost its resume or suffer an awful loss to South Carolina.

Against the Gamecocks, it was a closer game at home than expected and it was in doubt in the final 10 minutes. But Missouri was able to pull out the 83-74 victory and avoided what would’ve been a Quad 4 loss. All-SEC candidate Kobe Brown had 19 points, eight rebounds, and six assists in the loss, while Sean East chipped in with 15 off the bench.

A loss on the road at projected 1/2 seed Tennessee would’ve been perfectly acceptable, as long as it was competitive. The Tigers did more than that, taking an early double-digit lead. The Vols came back to retake the lead but thanks to a game-winning three from DeAndre Gholston at the very end gave Missouri the 86-85 upset victory. He had 18 while Brown had another 21 points.

That’s a Quad 1 win and a signature resume-builder for a team that doesn’t have any losses outside of Quad 1. This is the kind of win that can take them from the 8/9 seed range to a 7 seed all in one week. They’re just about guaranteed to make the NCAA Tournament in year 1 of the Dennis Gates era and simply a fantastic job all around.