Monitoring the NCAA tournament bubble is a daily practice, an art, if you will. From the first weekend of the college hoops season, daily analysis is compiled for weekly projections of who’s in, and who’s out. Finally, the bubble has all but defined itself, and of those lucky enough to be considered a part of it, there has been some recent movement.
With two straight losses to Northwestern and Iowa, Tom Crean’s Indiana Hoosiers have gone from comfortable to crazy. Their regular season finale against Michigan State may not be a must win, but with the Hoosiers’ inconsistency in back to back games, beating the Spartans might save them from a potential collapse in the Big Ten tournament.
As recently as Monday afternoon, Texas looked to be on the outside looking in when compiling my own NCAA tournament bracketology. Beating Baylor that same night has quelled many of my concerns, as I now have the Longhorns back in the field of 68.
Rick Barnes’ squad has always had the talent to make a run back into the “Lock” category, but hadn’t beaten a tournament team since mid-January against West Virginia. With the win over Baylor, UT is back in the top 40 of the RPI, and owns a second win over an RPI Top 25 team.
That isn’t to say Texas’ work is done, as they still have just three top 50 wins, but with a top ten strength of schedule to boost them, the Longhorns should be in a good position to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.
