Saturday, July 27, 2024

Bracketology Bubble Watch: Villanova, St. John’s and Utah have important games on tap

Saturday is the last chance for many bubble teams before playing in their conference tournaments next week

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Kim O’Reilly, CBS Sports

The regular season comes to an end for most of the conferences Saturday.  After this weekend, teams can only hope for the best in their conference tournaments. 

The nice thing about conference tournaments is that for the most part, they are played on neutral courts. However, St. John’s is a bubble team that will play the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden, which is considered a home court for the Johnnies, even though tickets are not controlled by the school. But before the conference tournament, St. John’s has an important game it can’t afford to lose right after moving into the field of 68.

Here are Saturday’s bubble teams in action.

All times Eastern.

Check out Palm’s latest bracket, full field of 68 and Bubble Watch at the Bracketology hub

Bubble teams in action Saturday

NCAA Tournament locks

Locks based on resume: 28 | AQ bids secured: 0 | At-large spots remaining: 8

Conference Locks Teams

ACC

3

Duke, North Carolina, Clemson

Big East

3

UConn, Marquette, Creighton

Big Ten

3

Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin

Big 12

6

Houston, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, BYU, Texas Tech

Pac-12

2

Arizona, Washington State

MWC

3

San Diego State, Utah State, Nevada

SEC

6

Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida

WCC

2

Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga

Near the cut line

Note – all references to NCAA Tournament selection records and trends based on NET rankings excludes the 2021 tournament. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of non-conference games, those rankings are not reliable enough to be considered.

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