Bracketology 2024: Pittsburgh, Texas Tech and Kentucky among week's biggest winners

This week makes us exactly one month from Selection Sunday, as well as the time of the season where the Selection Committee offers us a preview bracket of the top-16 overall seeds. These are teams who are effectively locks to make the NCAA Tournament, unless they lost the rest of their games.

For others, they need to find ways to either stay on the bubble or get that one last signature victory to cement their respective resumes. Focusing on the past week, here's a look at the recent "winners" from a Bracketology standpoint.

Honorable Mention: Mid-majors avoiding bad losses

With the exception of Indiana State, it was a fairly good week for non-power conference programs with at-large hopes. Gonzaga handled both LMU and Pacific, while Grand Canyon held on against Cal Baptist. Dayton and the Mountain West schools avoided bad losses, while even Princeton and the Sun Belt powers (App State and James Madison) kept their slim at-large hopes alive.

Honorable Mention: Teams barely staying alive

Ohio State may have fired its head coach but they found a way to beat the No. 1 projected overall seed in Purdue on Sunday. And SMU managed to blow out Memphis at home to improve to 10-3 in AAC play and with gaudy metrics. On Sunday, in what felt like an elimination game, Minnesota took out Rutgers at home to keep its own bubble hopes alive. For now, you have to keep an eye out on these teams, even if the current hopes are slim.