Bracketology 2024: Bubble Watch of key teams in early February

Oregon (15-7) (NET: 57)
2-4 (Q1), 2-2 (Q2), 7-1 (Q3), 4-0 (Q4)

Another victim of a weak Pac-12, Oregon’s only Quad 1 wins to this point in the season came in early December with road wins at Washington and Washington State. The Ducks really didn’t have a lot of opportunities in the nonconference, with their best win being against Georgia on opening night.

That nonconference did give them quite the anchor, with a loss to Santa Clara that remains a Quad 3 defeat. A 20-point loss in South Dakota to Syracuse wasn’t ideal and yet another Quad 2 loss came this weekend, as the Ducks blew a winnable game at UCLA.

Racking up wins is important for the Ducks, whose metrics aren’t exactly in an ideal position at the moment. They’ve lost four of their last six games but have a somewhat easier stretch of schedule ahead. Home rematches with the Washington schools have to become wins on a schedule with only two remaining Quad 1 matchups, both in early March.

Providence (14-8) (NET: 59)
3-5 (Q1), 2-3 (Q2), 0-0 (Q3), 9-0 (Q4)

An early win over Wisconsin has looked better and better as the season has progressed and is not the only Quad 1 victory now on Providence’s resume. While Big East play hasn’t been the most successful, the Friars beat Marquette back in December and got a hard-fought road win at Seton Hall as well.

Three Quad 2 losses isn’t great and one of those came at home over that same Pirates squad. Their loss to Kansas State in the Bahamas is also Quad 2 but the worst of the bunch is a 20-point home defeat at the hands of Xavier just three weeks ago.

This past week the Friars lost on the road at Connecticut and Villanova by a combined 27 points. This performance isn’t helping a resume that needs a couple more standout wins in this strong league. They’ll get their chance when hosting Creighton and St. John’s in the coming weeks, though it’s clear that Providence needs to play better ball.