By Michael Gross

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Nebraska, Michigan, Mich St., Illinois, Purdue

“Near Lock”

“Good Shape”

Iowa, Wisconsin 

“Bubble”

USC, UCLA, Ohio St., Indiana 

“Fringe Bubble”

Washington

          Purdue sealed their bid with an easy win in College Park. Their top 10 resume metrics and 6 Q1 wins which are highlighted by wins over Alabama, TTU and Iowa are easily enough to clinch a spot with 6 weeks to go!

“Good Shape”

         Iowa goes out west and sweeps their road trip against Oregon and Washington. They remain in very good shape to make the NCAA Tournament. They still lack a high end win as their best wins are over Indiana on the road and USC and UCLA at home. First, they need to beat Northwestern at home this weekend. After that the Hawkeyes get Maryland followed by 3 straight Q1 opportunities.

         Wisconsin certainly does have a quality win on their resume. They went to Ann Arbor and beat Michigan. If they can go to Bloomington and beat Indiana, that would be enough to move them up to “Near Lock”.

“Bubble”

        USC knocked off Rutgers and Indiana last week. That was exactly what they needed to do to keep them on track to making the NCAA Tournament. They don’t have many good wins, but the wins over Wisconsin and Indiana are enough right now to have them in the field. Next up the Trojans play Penn St. on the road. If they win that one, it would put them in pretty good shape heading into next week’s game against Ohio St.

        Ohio St. lost to Wisconsin on and road before beating Maryland on the road. Thus continuing the pattern of the Buckeyes losing to the good teams and beating the bad teams (save for losing to Pitt). They need to find some wins against good teams. Fortunately, they have plenty of upcoming opportunities. Over a 21 day span starting on Sunday and concluding on March 1st here is what they have. They get Michigan, USC, Wisconsin and Purdue at home. They’ll also play MSU and Iowa on the road plus Virginia in Nashville. Opportunities ahead for the Buckeyes!

         UCLA couldn’t get it done against Indiana at home, but they did rebound and beat Rutgers at home. Next up is Washington at home. They need to win that and then the Bruins have 2 huge opportunities on the road against the Michigan Schools. 

         Indiana went out west and managed to split their trip against the LA Schools. That gave them a second quality win to go along with their win over Purdue. The problem is they are just 3-8 in Q1/2 games. They must beat both Oregon and Wisconsin at home in their next two games to have a solid path to a bid. 

“Fringe Bubble”

        Washington was unable to hold a 7 point halftime lead team lead over Iowa and faded all the way to a 10 point loss. They just about have to win their remaining regular season games to make it.