Bracketology 2024: Bubble Watch Updates of key teams in early March
By Joey Loose
St. John’s (17-12) (NET: 39)
5-9 (Q1), 4-2 (Q2), 3-1 (Q3), 5-0 (Q4)
The Red Storm had a phenomenally rough stretch earlier in the year but are now riding a three-game winning streak. They’ve added a pair of Quad 1 wins in the last week and a half, getting a 23-point win at Butler this week following a win over Creighton the previous Sunday.
Outside of those recent wins, the Red Storm also have a pair of Quad 1 wins against Villanova. A win over Utah during the Charleston Classic also stands as Quad 1 and each of those wins are important because they’re against teams on the bubble.
The first Monday of the season saw St. John’s lose by 16 points to Michigan for a Quad 3 loss. More recent losses to Boston College and Seton Hall sit as Quad 2, but Big East play has more been a lot of missed chances in Quad 1 games.
The good news is that St. John’s is ending the season on the right foot. The bad news is that there aren’t any more chances left, as their last regular season games are DePaul and Georgetown. The Red Storm will have their fates sealed based on their play in the Big East Tournament.
TCU (19-10) (NET: 38)
3-10 (Q1), 4-0 (Q2), 4-0 (Q3), 8-0 (Q4)
Considered more firmly in the field a few weeks ago, TCU is feeling less like a sure thing, especially with all of these recent losses. The Horned Frogs lost at home to Baylor last Monday before a tough performance at BYU over the weekend.
Fortunately, the Horned Frogs are riding a few very impressive wins. Most notably they handed Houston one of their few losses back in January and later got an impressive triple overtime win at Baylor later that same month.
With ten losses all coming against Quad 1, the issue for TCU is quantity more than quality. There are no bad losses on this resume, it’s just that they’ve blown chances for more quality wins, including one-possession losses to Kansas, Iowa State, and Texas Tech.
If TCU avoids disaster this week, they should find themselves in the NCAA Tournament field with 21 wins and a pretty decent NET. They’ll play West Virginia and UCF to finish the regular season and should certainly have a favorable week.