NCAA Basketball: Picks for Day 114 of the 2023-24 season
By Bryan Mauro
It was a relatively quiet night in terms of upsets, but it was an extremely important night for bubble teams trying to secure wins to get them into the field and quite honestly most of them failed. Marquette blasted Providence in Milwaukee. Iowa State beat Oklahoma at Hilton, South Carolina beat Texas A&M in College Station. Creighton blew out Seton Hall, and St. John’s blew out Butler in Indy. Alabama beat Ole Miss in Oxford. That is not a good night for bubble teams that are trying to get into the tournament. St. John’s stays alive but Texas A&M and Butler are likely done. It is also an uphill climb for Ole Miss to get into the field.
There are teams in the field who did a lot of winning last night. Northwestern was short two key players and picked up an ugly win over Maryland at Xfinity Center. It was a huge win for the Wildcats as they attempt to go back-to-back in the NCAA tournament. Virginia avoided a loss to Boston College on the road, Colorado beat California and Florida beat Missouri. Those were all wins against bad teams that would hurt the resume. In the game of the night Tennessee and Auburn had a to-the-wire battle that saw the Volunteers win the game late. In mid-major conferences, High Point clinched the top seed in the Big South, Drake needed triple overtime to beat UIC in Chicago, Richmond held serve and still leads the Atlantic 10, and Austin Peay beat Eastern Kentucky to close the gap on first place in the Atlantic Sun.
Yesterday I went 35-23 in my picks that brings my 113 day total to 3,355-1,383 overall. Today is a huge day in terms of some bubble teams trying to close the deal and get themselves into the at large field for the NCAA tournament. It is also a big day for teams to try and clinch their conference regular seasons and head to championship week as the top seed in the tournament. There is a lot going to today even if there are not many power conference games. Picks for day 114 February 29, 2024, are below.
Binghamton over Maine
UMass Lowell over Bryant
Nebraska over Ohio State
Memphis over East Carolina
Gardner-Webb over Longwood
Elon over William & Mary
Towson over North Carolina A&T
Drexel over Stony Brook
Delaware over Northeastern
Monmouth over Hampton
UNC Wilmington over Hofstra
Charleston over Campbell
Fairleigh Dickinson over Merrimack
Central Connecticut over Long Island
Le Moyne over Wagner
Sacred Heart over Stonehill
NJIT over UMBC
New Hampshire over Albany
Jacksonville State over UTEP
Morehead State over Southeast Missouri State
North Dakota over South Dakota St
North Dakota State over South Dakota
St Thomas over Omaha
Utah over Stanford
Rutgers over Michigan
UT Martin over Tennessee Tech
Southern Indiana over Lindenwood
Western Illinois over Eastern Illinois
Abilene Christian over Southern Utah
Santa Clara over Portland
Little Rock over Tennessee State
Denver over Kansas City
Tarleton over Utah Tech
Grand Canyon over UT Rio Grande Valley
UC Davis over Hawaii
Liberty over New Mexico State
Weber State over Northern Colorado
Idaho State over Northern Arizona
Montana State over Idaho
Eastern Washington over Montana
LMU over San Diego
Cal Baptist over Stephen F. Austin
Seattle over UT Arlington
UC Irvine over Northridge
Long Beach over Fullerton
UC San Diego over Bakersfield
Santa Barbara over Cal Poly
Washington State over USC
Washington over UCLA
Saint Mary’s over Pepperdine
San Francisco over Gonzaga
Let’s look at some clinching scenarios today. If Nebraska beats Ohio State in Columbus it will be very hard to keep Nebraska out of the NCAA tournament. If they lose the Huskers have to beat Rutgers and Michigan to close out the year. Merrimack can clinch the Northeast Conference today with a win, if they lose and Central Connecticut wins then it all comes down to the last game. Eastern Washington can clinch the Big Sky regular season today with a win over Montana. Charleston will clinch the CAA for the second year in a row if they can beat Campbell. If South Dakota State beats North Dakota today the Jackrabbits will win the Summit League regular season.
Next. Biggest storylines for each top-25 team. Biggest storylines for each top-25 team. dark
Finally, if Saint Mary’s beats Pepperdine they will clinch the regular season WCC title over Gonzaga. It is going to be a big day of hoops today with a lot riding on the games.