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

Pittsburgh v Virginia
Pittsburgh v Virginia / Ryan M. Kelly/GettyImages
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Nevada (18-6) (NET: 47)
5-3 (Q1), 0-2 (Q2), 5-1 (Q3), 8-0 (Q4)

The Wolf Pack got their season off to a 15-1 start that included Quad 1 wins at Washington and against TCU. They’ve also been one of the best performers in MWC play, with impressive wins against Colorado State and San Diego State and in a road tilt at Utah State just over a week ago.

What’s unfortunate for this resume was their Quad 3 loss at Wyoming back in January, the last in a three-game losing streak. Their other losses came against potential Tournament teams, though the last two were both against New Mexico, a 34-point road loss and a heartbreaker at home on Tuesday night.

The Wolf Pack are vying for position in a strong MWC and probably need to pull another upset in the coming weeks to secure themselves in the Tournament field. They’ll play at Colorado State and Boise State in the final weeks of the season, but the current goal is winning at UNLV this weekend.

Northwestern (17-7) (NET: 56)
4-5 (Q1), 3-1 (Q2), 4-0 (Q3), 6-1 (Q4)

A very early win over Dayton has aged nicely, while their early December upset of Purdue remains one of the best for any team this season. Upset wins over Michigan State and Illinois added to that total of Quad 1 wins on a resume that doesn’t look too bad when you look at the victories.

Unfortunately, we have to look at every side of this resume and the Wildcats’ stunning home loss to Chicago State might be one of the worst losses that any bubble team owns. Northwestern also picked up their first Quad 2 loss against Minnesota a few weekends ago, but are faring well for the most part against the Big Ten.

Now winners of two straight, Northwestern needs to keep winning games to keep themselves in the Tournament field for what would be just the third time in program history. A road game at Michigan State late in the season might be the only Quad 1 opportunity left, so the goal is to keep winning these winnable games and to not spoil this resume.