Over the next few days, Run The Floor will give you periodic bubble and bracket updates. We'll wrap up each day late at night, we'll set up each day in the morning, and we'll toss in an update in the late-afternoon space between the day sessions and night sessions at the conference tournaments.
Here's the late-afternoon bubble-and-bracket update on Thursday, with Arkansas in progress and California about to take the court against Colorado. Commentary, for the sake of brevity, will be reserved for the night wraps and the morning scene-setters.
Bubble updates are self-explanatory. Bracket updates refer to any important seeding or bracketing developments to watch for as a result of certain game outcomes.
Here we go:
BIG EAST
BUBBLE
Providence stays alive and must make the final, probably needing to win the whole tournament.
St. John's is pretty much out barring a miracle.
BRACKETS
Villanova is out of the race for a No. 1 seed.
ACC
BUBBLE
Florida State stays alive and must beat Virginia tomorrow.
Pittsburgh avoids a bad loss and can feel safe if it beats North Carolina tomorrow.
AMERICAN
BRACKETS
SMU is very likely a double-digit seed after its loss to Houston.
Louisville, by playing Houston and not SMU in the semifinals, might be limited in its ability to climb an extra seed line.
BIG TEN
BUBBLE
With Ohio State beating Purdue, Nebraska avoids having to play an RPI/resume-killing game against Purdue. Hypothetically, a loss to Purdue would have done a lot of damage to the Huskers. Nebraska benefits from having to play Ohio State and can feel fully safe with a win tomorrow.
PAC-12
BUBBLE
Utah is out of consideration.
SEC
BUBBLE
Missouri stays alive and must beat Florida tomorrow. The Tigers will probably need to make the SEC final to be in the conversation on Selection Sunday.
ATLANTIC 10
BUBBLE
Dayton avoids a bad loss and can feel fully safe if it beats Saint Joseph's tomorrow.
BIG 12
BRACKETS
Kansas, given the injury to Joel Embiid, probably avoided falling off the 2 line with this win over Oklahoma State. A win over Iowa State tomorrow would ensure a 2 seed at worst.
