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Bubble Banter: Big 12 doesn’t get any clearer

National Collegiate Basketball Hall Of Fame Classic

KANSAS CITY, MO - NOVEMBER 21: Manu Lecomte #20 and King McClure #22 of the Baylor Bears celebrate as the Bears defeated the Creighton Bluejays to win he National Collegiate Basketball Hall Of Fame Classic Championship game at Sprint Center on November 21, 2017 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Getty Images

As we will do every day throughout the rest of the season, here is a look at how college basketball’s bubble teams fared on Sunday.

It’s worth reminding you here that the way winning are labeled have changed this season. Instead of looking at all top 50 wins equally, the selection committee will be using criteria that breaks wins down into four quadrants, using the RPI:


  • Quadrant 1: Home vs. 1-30, Neutral vs. 1-50, Road vs. 1-75
  • Quadrant 2: Home vs. 31-75, Neutral vs. 51-100, Road vs. 76-135
  • Quadrant 3: Home vs. 76-160, Neutral vs. 101-200, Road vs. 136-240
  • Quadrant 4: Home vs. 161 plus, Neutral vs. 201 plus, Road vs. 240 plus

The latest NBC Sports Bracketology can be found here.

WINNER

BAYLOR (RPI: 53, KenPom: 34, NBC seed: First four out): Baylor picked up a massive win on Monday night at Texas, their fourth Quadrant 1 win of the year and their sixth win against the top two Quadrants. The Bears have now won four straight games with a schedule that finishes like this: Texas Tech, West Virginia, at TCU, Oklahoma, at Kansas State. That is a brutal run-in. I think 3-2 will get it done.

LOSERS

TCU (RPI: 27, KenPom: 25, NBC seed: 9): The Horned Frogs went into Morgantown on Monday night and did what teams normally do in Morgantown: They lost. It’s not a killer. TCU is now 3-8 against Quadrant 1 and 3-1 against Quadrant 2, their worst loss coming at Vanderbilt (125). The biggest issue for TCU at this point is that they only have one more Quadrant 1 game on their schedule, but that could be a good thing. If they win their next four games (Oklahoma State, at Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas State) they probably will be in whether or not they beat Texas Tech on the road in the finale.

TEXAS (RPI: 55, KenPom: 44, NBC seed: 10): The Longhorns lost in double-overtime at home against Baylor on Saturday, their fourth Quadrant 2 loss of the season. I still think the Longhorns are in a good spot because of the number of good wins that they have to their name. Texas, as of today, is 5-7 against Quadrant 1 and 7-11 against the top two Quadrants.