NCAA Basketball: Picks for Day 110 of 2023-24 season

It was a good day to be a bubble team if you didn’t play a game on Saturday. It was a bad day to be a bubble team you did play games on Saturday. 9 of the last 10 teams out of the field took losses and those in the tournament further cemented their justification in the tournament. Let's look at the bubble teams who helped themselves. Wake Forest beat Duke in Winston-Salem for their signature win on the season. Kansas State continues its late-season push to the bubble with a win over BYU in Manhattan. NC State beat Boston College, Boise State beat Wyoming, Seton Hall beat Butler, Colorado beat Utah to eliminate Utah and keep Colorado around the cutline for now,  and Gonzaga beat Santa Clara. The list of teams who hurt themselves is far longer.

These are teams who are going to fall out of the tournament or who have eliminated themselves from contention with the results today. Iowa lost to Illinois. The Illini pulled the starters and put the bench players in to prove a point and it worked out and they were able to get separation from Iowa. Texas A&M got hammered by Tennessee in Knoxville. The Aggies have not had a great last two weeks. Villanova got blasted by UConn in Storrs. The Huskies were angry after getting beat by Creighton earlier this week. Colorado State lost to UNLV in Vegas, Butler lost to Seton Hall in New Jersey. The Bulldogs are out and the Pirates are in. Cincinnati fell further off the cutline with a loss to TCU. Ole Miss is now likely out after a home loss to South Carolina. Virginia failed to score 45 points in a 10-point loss to North Carolina. Virginia is not as safe as some think they are. New Mexico did the one thing you can not do this late in the year. They took a quad 4 loss at home to Air Force. That is not going to bode well for the Lobos. 

There were some other key results as well that will have an impact on the NCAA tournament. Houston beat Baylor in Waco. Grand Canyon took their second loss in a row this week with a loss to Abilene Christian. The Lopes are now out of the at large conversation and will need to win the WAC auto bid. Kansas beat Texas, Oklahoma needed a buzzer beater to beat Oklahoma State, Saint Mary’s beat San Diego, Auburn pounded Georgia, and San Diego State pounded Fresno State. UC San Diego beat UC Irvine to move into a tie for first in the Big West. Princeton and Yale won their games and Cornell lost their game which means there is a three-way tie for first in the Ivy League. Richmond beat Davidson and Loyola Chicago beat George Mason to stay in first in the Atlantic 10. The stretch run in these leagues is going to be great.

Yesterday I went 93-44 which brings my 109 day total to 3,274-1,332 overall. The Sunday schedule has a lot of impact games especially on the bubble. There are huge games for conference seeding as well. This is one of the biggest Sunday schedules there has been for awhile. Picks for day 110 February 25, 2024, are below.

St. John’s over Creighton

South Florida over SMU

Rutgers over Maryland

La Salle over Rhode Island

Wagner over Long Island

Purdue over Michigan

Florida Atlantic over Memphis

Evansville over Southern Illinois

Navy over Holy Cross

Colgate over American

Boston University over Loyola Maryland

Bucknell over Army

Rider over Quinnipiac

Iona over Mount St. Mary’s

Fairfield over Siena

Northern Kentucky over IUPUI

Robert Morris over Cleveland State

Saint Peter’s over Marist

Green Bay over Youngstown State

Oakland over Wright State

Fort Wayne over Milwaukee

Wichita State over Temple

Tulane over UAB

Michigan State over Ohio State

VCU over Saint Joseph’s

Marquette over Xavier

Nebraska over Minnesota

The Big Ten is going to be the theme of tomorrow as they have 4 games and all have huge implications. If Rutgers wants to make the postseason they can’t lose to Maryland at home. Purdue can’t take a loss to Michigan. Michigan State and Nebraska need to protect their home court. I do believe all of the favorites will win tomorrow in that league but the games outside of Purdue will be close.

Can Rider pull off the upset against league-leader Quinnipiac? Florida Atlantic and Memphis is the game of the day. Those were the two teams from the league who were supposed to make the tournament. The Memphis Tigers have fallen on some hard times but the FAU Owls are ready to make another magical run in March. Memphis desperately needs that win.