Bracketology 2024: Latest Bubble Watch of key teams in mid-February

Mississippi State (16-8) (NET: 36)
3-6 (Q1), 3-0 (Q2), 5-1 (Q3), 5-1 (Q4)

They beat Washington State in a holiday tournament and have played nicely at times against a strong SEC. Mississippi State performed well in Quad 1 wins against Tennessee in early January and Auburn a few weeks later. Other wins over Northwestern and Rutgers haven’t aged quite as well.

The attention quickly goes to those rough losses, as the Bulldogs dropped a Quad 3 game at Georgia Tech before a mind-boggling upset at home by Southern a few days later. That Quad 4 loss is really bad, but they’ve avoided further upset during conference play, losing nothing but Quad 1 games in the SEC.

After a rough stretch, Mississippi State seems to be playing better basketball, winning their last two games by double-digits against weaker SEC foes. They won’t have another Quad 1 chance for a couple weeks, but need to keep winning games, especially with home dates against Arkansas and Ole Miss next on the docket.

Nebraska (17-8) (NET: 53)
3-5 (Q1), 3-3 (Q2), 4-0 (Q3), 7-0 (Q4)

November was perfect but uninspiring; the Cornhuskers gained attention for a December home win over Michigan State. The highlight of their season was a 16-point win over an elite Purdue team in early January, while the third Quad 1 win was against Wisconsin a few weeks later.

What stinks for the Cornhuskers is that they haven’t won a single road game in conference play. Among these defeats are Quad 2 losses at Minnesota, Rutgers, and Maryland. A few of these losses are forgivable, and they did come close at Illinois recently, but a failure to win away from home isn’t exactly inspiring.

The message here is clear: Nebraska has to show that it can win games away from home. Beating top Big Ten teams in Lincoln is great and has put their resume on the bubble, but their remaining road games are all winnable and they have no more games with the top 5 teams in the Big Ten. Simply win.