By Michael Gross

🔐 

Arizona, Iowa St., Houston

“Near Lock”

TTU, BYU, Kansas, UCF

“Good Shape”

“Bubble”

TCU, OKST, WVU

“Fringe Bubble”

Colorado, Arizona St., Baylor

          Houston responded from their loss to TTU by beating TCU and Cincinnati. That was enough to seal a bid to the NCAA Tournament. With a 10-2 Q1/2 record that features wins over TTU, Auburn and Arkansas; they’ve done more than enough to earn a bid.

“Near Lock”

          Kansas has won 6 in a row to move to the doorstep of dealing a bid. All they gotta do is beat Utah at home this weekend.

The Red Raiders have lost a couple of tough games following their win over Houston. They are still in outstanding shape though with 3 Q1A wins and 0 losses outside of Q1A. Next up is WVU on the road. A win there would put them 1 win away from clinching a bid.

          BYU fell behind big in both games against Arizona and Kansas. In both cases they made big rallies but fell short. They like the Red Raiders are still in fine shape. They get a shot against Houston on Saturday where a win there would seal a bid. Now should they lose to OKST prior to playing Houston and also lose to Houston; I might get a little concerned.

         UCF has won 3 in a row and the last win over TTU was enough to move them up to “Near Lock”. If they can find a way to win at Houston; that might be enough to 🔐 them. Certainly if they follow that up with a win at Cincy; that would do the trick. If they only beat Cincinnati; they’ll still be in this category. If they lose both; they could drop back down to “Good Shape”.

“Bubble”

        Rough week for TCU this past week. First, they lost at home to Houston. Obviously no shame in that, but they followed it up by losing by 26 at Colorado. They must beat Kansas St. on Saturday to have a viable path moving forward.

         OKST continues to hang around. Those wins over UCF and Texas A&M continue to look better and better. They still don’t have a Q1 win. They have two massive opportunities to change that as they play BYU and Arizona this week. If they get either one; I think that’s would be enough to put them in the field. If they can somehow win both; that’s how a team would go from the “Bubble” Section to a “near lock” in a hurry! If they go 0-2; it’s a much tougher road for them. 

        WVU really needed to win both home games last week and they only managed to split them. I really think they need to beat Cincinnati and TTU this week to have a decent chance to make it.

“Fringe Bubble”

        Baylor and Colorado play tonight in a game where it feels like the loser has virtually no chance at an at large bid moving forward. Baylor does get a chance against Iowa St. this weekend. Colorado really needs to beat both Baylor and Arizona St. this week to still have a chance IMO. Arizona St. is going to have to beat both Utah and Colorado this week to still have a chance.