From now until Selection Sunday, we’ll take a weekly look at NCAA Tournament Bubble Winners to breakdown who’s trending upwards towards the Big Dance in March.
- Butler: Getting wins on the road in February is a common theme across seasons between bubble winners and Butler did just that this week, going into Seton Hall and coming away victorious. They’ve now won four of their last five games. The emergence of Kelan Martin to take the pressure off of Kellen Dunham and Roosevelt Jones will be key in the home stretch.
- Texas Tech: The record may not look great, but the computers love these Red Raiders due to their scheduling. This team has seven RPI top 100 wins and has played 10 games versus the top 25. Now, they’ve only won two of those, the latest against Iowa State on Wednesday, but they’re trending upwards.
- Alabama: Beating Texas A&M gave the Tide their signature win, but they’ve still got work to do in the closing stretch of the season. They’ve finally cracked the RPI top 50, but will likely need another win over Kentucky or Florida to start feeling good about their chances come Selection Sunday.
- Tulsa: Knocking off SMU gets their resume back into consideration, to be sure, but with three games left against RPI top 100 teams, Tulsa might need to get at least two of those, plus one in the conference tournament. Still, it’s nice to have one of our preseason sleepers back in the national conversation.
- Saint Joseph’s: This is the case of a team not getting in their own way, as Saint Joseph’s doesn’t have a bad loss on their resume. Now they may not have the greatest wins, but Dayton and St. Bonaventure will give them that chance coming up.
