Bracketology 2025: Gonzaga, Purdue among this week’s biggest winners and losers

It was a wild week in college basketball. 18 teams ranked inside the AP Top 25 went down. Of course, this has NCAA Tournament implications written all over it, both good and bad. Take a look at this week’s biggest winners and losers and how it affects each team’s NCAA Tournament resume moving forward.

Winner: Purdue Boilermakers

Do not look now, but the Purdue Boilermakers have ever-so-quietly found their stride. Purdue capped off an impressive West Coast road trip beating Oregon 65-58 behind 23 points and 11 boards from Trey Kauffman-Renn. At 15-4 (7-1), the Boilermakers are riding a seven-game win streak. In that span, Purdue’s average margin of victory is a comfortable 18.4. Its NET ranking has increased from 36 to 10. 

Any time you escape a West Coast trip unscathed and pick up a Q1 road win, that’s about as solid of a week as they come. Now, Purdue finds itself in the thick of the Big Ten title race and continues to move up seed lines, making them clear bracketology winners from this week in college hoops.

Loser: Gonzaga Bulldogs 

Perhaps no team in college basketball had as bad of a week as the Gonzaga Bulldogs. On Thursday, the Bulldogs faltered in the final five minutes of regulation, falling to Oregon State in OT in Corvallis. On Saturday, Gonzaga surrendered 59 second-half points versus Santa Clara in a 103-99 loss inside the friendly confines of The Kenell.  

Putting its glaring defensive issues aside, the Bulldogs are suddenly looking at a fragile resume. Its predictive metrics are strong -- and will be solid for the rest of the season -- but the Bulldogs' SOR has plummeted to 52nd. They have zero noteworthy wins since the early weeks of the season. This is especially concerning for Gonzaga’s seeding purposes, making Gonzaga big-time bracketology losers this week.

Winner: Creighton Bluejays

Ever since Pop Isaacs' season-ending injury and its win over Kansas in early December, Creighton has somewhat fallen under the radar amidst the chaos-ensuing nature of college hoops. Rest assured, that is not the case anymore. Creighton picked up arguably its biggest win of the season in a 68-63 win over UConn in Storrs. The win snapped UConn’s 28-game home winning streak.

With a 12-6 (5-2) record, Creighton is firmly on the bubble. Yet this week may have pushed them on the right side of the bubble…for now. The Bluejays now enter a pivotal eight-game stretch that will either make or break its at-large hopes. In its upcoming eight-game gauntlet, seven matchups are versus Q1/Q2 foes. Greg McDermott has a knack for getting the most out of his group. This year may be no different.

Loser: Pitt Panthers

Pitt’s free-fall continues. The Panthers are now losers of four straight. This week wasn’t too kind for Jeff Capel’s squad, falling to Florida State by 12 on Wednesday and dropping a pivotal OT loss to Clemson at home on Saturday after its comeback attempt came up just short.

After such a strong start to the season, Pitt now finds itself near the bubble. Its NET ranking -- which has been its strong point this season -- has fallen to 33nd. Every team faces adversity through the rigors of the five-month season. There is zero question Pitt is going through that adversity right now. Non-conference wins over West Virginia and Ohio State and a challenging NET OOC-SOS will hold serve but the Panthers will need to get back on track quickly if it wants to stop the bleeding and get back into the single-digit seed conversation.

Winner: Houston Cougars

It took a while, but the Houston Cougars have finally done it! Houston picked up not one but two Q1 victories this week -- its first Q1 victories of the season. The Cougars took care of West Virginia (who upset Iowa State on Saturday) and snuck out a monster win in Orlando on Saturday thanks to J’Wan Roberts’ late-game heroics. 

In 2022, Houston had top-five predictive metrics across the board but would only earn a five seed. Why? It had just one Q1 win. Flash forward to 2025, Houston (again) has top-five metrics across the board but didn’t register a Q1 win until this week. If there’s any sure-fire recipe to avoid being under-seeded come March, it’s to grab Q1 victories. And Houston did just that, making the Cougars bracketology winners this week.

Loser: BYU Cougars

After taking care of business versus Oklahoma State on Tuesday, BYU had a perfect opportunity to kickstart some momentum and grab its first Q1 victory. However, the Cougars would fall in OT against its rival, Utah, in Salt Lake City.

BYU currently sits at 11-6 (2-4) and all it has to show on its resume is just one Q2 victory -- a win over Arizona State at home. With a NET OOC-SOS trending near the 300s, the Cougars have clearly dug themselves into a hole. Thankfully, the nature of the Big 12 will give Kevin Young’s club plenty of cracks at resume-boosting opportunities. But time is not on its side.

Winner: Missouri Tigers

The Missouri Tigers are rolling, rattling off four-straight SEC wins. This week, the Tigers picked up its biggest win of the season -- an 83-82 road win over Florida -- and followed up its monstrous win with a dominant 18-point victory over the struggling Arkansas Razorbacks. 

In the SEC, no win is a guarantee. And Mizzou has four SEC wins. Looking deeper into its resume, the Tigers’ two Q1 wins (Florida and Kansas) are classified as Q1A wins. It's only three losses have come to Q1 opponents. Is it too early to suggest that the Tigers move into the protected seed range? Probably. But this week proves Missouri is here to stay and will be a force to be reckoned with all season long.

Loser: Ohio State Buckeyes

At some point, solid predictive metrics can only get you so far. And that’s exactly what is happening with the Buckeyes. Ohio State has dropped three straight games (by a combined five points) after falling to Wisconsin on the road and Indiana in OT at home this week.

Despite predictive metrics in the mid-30s, the Buckeyes sport a resume average of 62, according to BartTorvik’s teamsheet ranks. At 10-8 (2-5), Ohio State’s at-large hopes are slipping away fast. And its road ahead doesn’t get much easier. The Buckeyes will play three road games in its next four games, including a daunting visit to Mackey Arena on Tuesday.

All hope is Columbus isn’t lost. After all, this is the same group that beat Kentucky by 20 in late December. But this week significantly hurt Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament aspirations.