By Michael Gross

🔐 Nebraska

“Near Lock”

Purdue, Michigan, Mich St., Illinois 

“Good Shape”

Iowa, Wisconsin 

“Bubble”

USC, UCLA, Ohio St.

“Fringe Bubble”

Indiana, Minnesota, Washington

           Congratulations Nebrasketball fans! Your Cornhuskers are heading to the NCAA Tournament. Predictives are still unsure about this team. However, this is a 19-0 team with wins over Illinois, Michigan St. and Wisconsin. With Nebraska a 🔐 let us look at who is likely to join them from the Big Ten.

           Michigan and Michigan St. have the opportunity this weekend to join Nebraska as 🔐 to make the field. The winner of the Purdue vs Illinois game this weekend is very likely to get locked. What better way for Illinois to prove they can play without Kylan Boswell for the foreseeable future by beating one of the best teams in the nation on the road!

           Wisconsin has won 5 in a row including the massive road win over Michigan. Since then; the Badgers have taken care of business against Minnesota, Rutgers and Penn St. If they beat USC at home this weekend, they’d be right on the edge of “Near Lock” status. 

Iowa unlike Wisconsin is closer to the main bubble section than they are to “Near Lock”. The wins over UCLA and Indiana plus no bad losses are keeping them in good standing to make the field. Huge game at home against USC on Wednesday. 

           USC on the other hand dropped down to the bubble after falling at home to Northwestern. Their 6-5 Q1/2 record is somewhat deceptive as their only win against a potential NCAA Tournament win is Seton Hall. Now the Trojans have multiple losses to teams that wouldn’t be near the field if the Tourney started today. USC has 2 important road opportunities coming up against Wisconsin and Iowa. If they don’t win either one, their prospects get very murky.

Huge huge win for UCLA knocking off Purdue. Let’s see if they can keep the momentum going by beating Northwestern and Oregon this week! Ohio St. is just continuing to hang around the projected field. They have a massive opportunity tonight to change that by winning at Michigan (Hey Wisconsin did it! It can be done!). If they don’t, they must beat Penn St. at home on Monday.

           Indiana has dropped 4 straight games to fall to “Fringe Bubble”. They’ll need to beat both Rutgers and Purdue in their next 2 games to change that. Washington and Minnesota’s chances are getting slimmer by the week!