Bracketology 2024: Virginia Tech, New Mexico, and Utah among week's biggest losers

Another week, another week of teams either improving or taking damage to their NCAA Tournament resumes. After covering a look at the biggest “Bracketology Winners”, I’m going to be taking a look at who the biggest losers are. Some teams may have put themselves out of at-large contention entirely, while others have gone from safe to not-so-safe.

Here’s a list of nine clear winners, along with a group of teams who get a mention for missing out on a big opportunity for a signature win this past week.

St. John’s Red Storm

After beating DePaul, which doesn’t mean anything, the Red Storm had a road game against top-10 Wisconsin, a true signature opportunity. It was looking good midway through, up double-digits early in the second half. However, Marquette made a big run to win 86-75, giving St. John’s its 3rd loss in 4 games. Creighton at home in two weeks is now their last chance to move the needle, while also needing to avoid a bad loss against the bottom of the Big East.

Cincinnati Bearcats

I can’t be too down on the Bearcats, since they did get a road win at Texas Tech earlier in the week. However, they had a second-half lead at home against Houston, one of the best teams in the country before falling, 67-62. That was the kind of win that could’ve pushed them nearly off the bubble for good reasons. Now, they’ll have to find ways to make up for it.

Dayton Flyers

The Flyers dominated St. Joe’s in Philly earlier in the week and had its likely last Quad 1 regular-season game on Friday, at rival VCU. But in a game where neither team reached 50 points, Dayton lost 49-47 in a missed opportunity. This doesn’t hurt them from an at-large perspective but they’re now going to struggle to stay in the top 4 or 5 seed range and get a preferable region/location in March.