Bracketology 2024: Bubble Watch Updates of key teams in late February

St. John’s (16-12) (NET: 44)
2-9 (Q1), 6-2 (Q2), 3-1 (Q3), 5-0 (Q4)

Things haven’t always fallen St. John’s way this season. An early win over Utah fell down to Quad 2 recently, though their sweep of Villanova was still a Quad 1 win on the road. The Red Storm picked up an all-important second such win against Creighton this past Saturday.

The losses are somewhat numerous, though a loss to Michigan in the opening week of the season remains the anchor on the resume. The Red Storm have blown many chances for Quad 1 wins and actually had lost eight of ten games before this week’s success.

Now winners of two straight, St. John’s needs to keep winning their games to solidify their chance at the Big Dance. What awaits them is a trip to Butler and then games against DePaul and Georgetown that won’t help their resume at all. The Red Storm could certainly be in worse shape, and that Creighton win was huge, but it may take a nice performance at the Big East Tournament to get the job done.

Texas (17-10) (NET: 40)
4-7 (Q1), 2-2 (Q2), 2-1 (Q3), 9-0 (Q4)

It’s been quite the journey for a Texas squad that has done much of their damage in Big 12 play this season. That’s where all of their Quad 1 wins have come, winning at Cincinnati, Oklahoma, and TCU while also knocking off Baylor back in January.

The Quad 3 loss was at West Virginia and still stings more than a month later. Losing at home to UCF remains a Quad 2 loss but was part of a really terrible week in January. The Longhorns have avoided significant upset since then, but they have lost five of their last eight games.

Texas would be an NCAA Tournament right now but how safe is their bid? These losses in recent weeks have all come against top-tier Big 12 teams, but at some point the Longhorns have to be winning some of these games. They’ll get second shots at Texas Tech and Baylor on the road before the regular season ends and might need one or two more nice wins to feel comfortable on Selection Sunday.