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Bubble Banter: Colorado, Dayton the day’s biggest winners

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AP Photo

There are 11 days left until Selection Sunday. Every morning from now until the bracket comes out, we’ll help you get caught up on the happenings with impact on the bubble from the night before.

You can see NBCSports.com’s latest bracket here.

WINNERS

Dayton: The Flyers are suddenly in a great position to earn a bid after they went into Saint Louis and knocked off the Billikens on Wednesday night. We wrote about them here.

Arkansas: All of a sudden, the Razorbacks look like they’re the third-best team in the SEC, and the only team not named Florida or Kentucky to feel comfortable about their NCAA tournament standing as of today. They’ve now won six straight games -- including one in Rupp Arena -- and have just a single, one-point loss since February 1st. They have four top 50 wins, are 9-8 against the top 100 and only have a single ugly loss on their resume. The SEC is bad enough, however, that Arkansas probably can’t afford to lose to the likes of Alabama, who they play this weekend. But they’re in good shape.

Colorado: The Buffaloes moved to 7-6 without Spencer Dinwiddie in the lineup, picking up a win over sputtering Stanford in Palo Alto. Their final game of the regular season is at Cal, which means that the Buffs are probably in a position to withstand a loss. They have five top 50 wins, terrific computer numbers and a win over Kansas. What’s going to determine their standing is how the committee views their performance post-Dinwiddie.

Nebraska: The Cornhuskers won at Indiana, which was a step in the right direction but it wasn’t a stamp on their ticket to the dance. Not yet. They’re 3-7 against the top 50 and have three ugly losses. Wisconsin heads to Lincoln on Saturday. Win that, and we’ll talk.

Tennessee and Missouri: The Vols put a whipping on Auburn at Auburn while Missouri needed a couple of beneficial whistles down the stretch to handle Texas A&M at home. But that doesn’t matter as much as the fact that both teams were able to land a win, which leaves them in the same position: needing a win when they square off in Knoxville this weekend. Both teams are currently sitting in the realm of the Last Four In.

Utah: The Utes are still in the conversation after beating Cal on the road on Wednesday. They have five top 50 wins, they’re 6-8 against the top 100 and they still have a chance to land another quality road win at Stanford this weekend. The problem? They played no one outside of the league. Their non-conference SOS is 346th, which just brutalizes their computer numbers. They will still have some work to do in the Pac-12 tourney even with a win over the Cardinal.

LOSERS

Stanford: The Cardinal are suddenly in a bad spot. They beat UCLA two weeks ago, which put them in a terrific spot to earn a bid down the stretch of the season. But they’ve lost three in a row since then and are suddenly looking at the possibility of playing their way out of the dance. They have four top 30 wins and just one bad loss, but their record against the top 100 is now just 6-10. They’re probably still avoiding the First Four, but they need to be Utah this weekend to avoid a potentially messy situation in the Pac-12 tournament.

Cal: Not a good night for the Bay Area Pac-12 schools. Utah had one road win on the season before Wednesday, and the Utes picked off Cal in Haas Pavilion. The Bears have now lost eight of their last 12 games, they’re 4-8 against the top 50 (although they did beat Arizona) and they lost a pair of games to sub-100 teams. In other words, Cal is in a bad, bad spot. They host Colorado on Saturday. Lose that game, and the Bears could very well head into the Pac-12 tournament on the wrong side of the bubble.

Saint Joseph’s: The Hawks had a chance to lock up a bid with a win at George Washington, but they weren’t able to get it. GW is a top 30 team, and a loss on the road to a top 30 team certainly doesn’t hurt St. Joe’s profile. They’ve got four top 50 wins (including VCU and UMass, who are both in the top 25), but they didn’t do much outside of the league. They get La Salle at home this weekend. It would behoove Phil Martelli to win that game.