by It’s the penultimate day of the season and we only have one day until Selection Sunday. Here are some of the things I keep an eye on during my busy Saturday slate.
The battle for the final No. 1 seed comes down to Purdue vs. UCLA. The Bruins are already without Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Jalen Clark. Then, in Friday’s Pac-12 semifinal against Oregon, Adem Bona went down with an apparent shoulder injury and did not return. UCLA won comfortably anyway.
The Bruins will face Arizona for the Pac-12 Tournament championship on Saturday. A win for the Bruins could secure a No. 1 seed, but it could depend on what Purdue does.
The Boilermakers faced old foe Rutgers on Friday and will play potential bid stealer Ohio State in the Big Ten semifinals this afternoon. The Buckeyes are the No. 13 seed and have won three straight games to get here. On Friday, they knocked off No. 4 seed Michigan State.
Bracketology Top Seeds
Check out the latest Palm bracket, the full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble in the Bracketology Center.
Bubble teams will be closely watching today’s Conference USA final between Florida Atlantic and UAB. The Owls are likely to win or lose an at-large team, but UAB needs to win out to be a potential bid stealer. Right now, Rutgers’ spot in the bracket would be at stake.
NCAA Tournament Locks
Resume based locks: 28 | Guaranteed automatic offers: 14 of 32 | Major points of interest: 8
|
ACC |
3 |
Miami, Virginia, Duke |
|
Great East |
4 |
Marquette, UConn, Xavier, Creighton |
|
Big Ten |
5 |
Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State, Iowa, Northwestern |
|
Big 12 |
6 |
Baylor, Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Iowa State, TCU |
|
Pac-12 |
2 |
Arizona, UCLA |
|
SEC |
5 |
Alabama, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Missouri, Kentucky |
|
American |
1 |
Houston |
|
Others |
2 |
Saint Mary’s, San Diego State |
At the cutline
See all the teams in Palm’s Bubble Watch, the field of 68 and the entire bracket in the Bracketology Center
Bubble teams in action on Saturday
All references to NCAA tournament selection records and trends refer only to tournaments dating back to 1994, with the exception of 2021. Due to shortened schedules and the relatively small number of non-conference games in 2021, these rankings were not reliable enough to be taken into account.
