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Bubble Banter: A lot of bubble teams helped themselves on Wednesday night

Temple v Villanova

VILLANOVA, PA - DECEMBER 05: Shizz Alston Jr. #10 and Quinton Rose #1 of the Temple Owls reacts after an offensive foul in the second half against the Villanova Wildcats at Finneran Pavilion on December 5, 2018 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. The Villanova Wildcats defeated the Temple Owls 69-59. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

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February is here!

And now that we are nearly halfway through conference play, it is time for us to get fully invested in the “who’s-in-who’s-out” discussion. Bubble Banter has never been more important!

Some quick housekeeping before we dive into it:


  • This page will be updated throughout the night.
  • We’ll update them best that we can, but the NET rankings will be accurate through Tuesday morning.
  • If you see something we missed, if you have an issue with a team we left out or if you want to congratulate us on a job well done, drop a comment below or hit us up here: @RobDauster.
  • On Monday, our Dave Ommen released an updated bracket. It is the only bracket you need to be up to date on.

Onto Tuesday’s action.

WINNERS

TEMPLE (NET: 53, SOS: 39): The Owls blew out UConn on Wednesday, a good win because they couldn’t afford to take that loss. The win over Houston (7) is still really the only thing buoying Temple’s resume, but it is worth noting that road trips to South Florida, Memphis and UConn are all, as of today, Q1 games.

TEXAS (NET: 41, SOS: 4): The Longhorns snapped Baylor’s six-game winning streak, picking off the Bears by 12 in Austin on Wednesday night. I know that this team is 13-10 on the year and just 5-5 in league play with home losses to VCU, Providence and VCU and road losses to Oklahoma State and Georgia, but I still think Texas is actually fairly safe as of today. They beat North Carolina on a neutral, Purdue and Kansas in Austin and Kansas State on the road. There aren’t a lot of teams that can boast wins like that.

CLEMSON (NET: 50, SOS: 30): Clemson is one of those teams that is probably better than their resume says. They are 0-6 in Q1 games, but they do have four Q2 wins and their two Q2 losses -- to Nebraska at home and Creighton on a neutral -- came when those two teams were healthy. The Tigers have no bad losses, but they don’t have any good wins. They will have chances, however: Virginia Tech (11), at Louisville (15), Florida State (29), North Carolina (8) and Syracuse (47) are still on their schedule. They probably want to win three of those to really feel comfortable.

ALABAMA (NET: 45, SOS: 12): The Tide held serve at home against Georgia, which only matters in the sense that it was a Q3 games and Alabama already has two Q3 losses. They’re in good shape, however. The win over Kentucky is going to hold serious weight on Selection Sunday, and a 6-1 mark in Q2 games is a byproduct of playing a tough schedule.

LIPSCOMB (NET: 32, SOS: 216): If Lipscomb can win out and they lose to Liberty (54) in the Atlantic Sun title game, they’ll have a very real shot at getting an at-large bid. Their worst loss came home to archrival Belmont, and they have wins at TCU (37), at Liberty by 20 and at SMU(115). Things like Nebraska going in the tank and the Big East looking more and more like a three-bid league will only help.

DAVIDSON (NET: 61, SOS: 108): After a win over Rhode Island, the Wildcats will have an interesting case for an at-large bd should they not win the Atlantic 10 tournament. At it currently stands, they are 17-5 on the season with a 4-3 record against the top two quadrants but without a win in two tries against Q1 opponents. They also have a pair of Q3 losses to their name, but it’s important to note here that they lost three out of four games when the best player in the Atlantic 10 -- Kellan Grady -- was out injured. The biggest issue they are going to face is that they only play one top 100 NET team the rest of the year, and that’s Dayton (95) at home, a Q3 game. The Atlantic 10 might as well be the CAA this year.

VCU (NET: 49, SOS: 38): VCU won at George Washington on Wednesday. The Rams have a very similar resume to Davidson, the only difference is that they currently own a road win against Texas (41). And like Davidson, the Rams just don’t have anything worthwhile left on their schedule.

TCU (NET: 37, SOS: 22): The Horned Frogs kept themselves from falling further away from safety by holding serve against Oklahoma State at home. They head to Iowa State on Saturday and host Kansas next Monday.

LOSERS

NEBRASKA (NET: 34, SOS: 92): The slump continues. The Cornhuskers lost their sixth straight game on Wednesday night. They are now 12-10 overall and 3-9 in the Big Ten. They still get Purdue twice and have to play Michigan and Michigan State on the road, meaning that if they turn this around, there are plenty of chances there to get quality wins, but that is a monstrous ‘if’.

CREIGHTON (NET: 58, SOS: 9): The Bluejays missed on an absolutely golden opportunity to cash in on a marquee win on Wednesday night, as they lost at No. 14 Villanova in overtime. Creighton missed two free throws that would have given them the lead with 37 seconds left in regulation and followed that up by missing a shot at the buzzer that would have won the game. As of today, Creighton has just a 1-8 mark against Q1 opponents, and the one win is a neutral court win over Clemson, which will only remain Q1 if they stay in the top 50 of NET. They are currently No. 50. At this point, I think Creighton has to win at Seton Hall and at Marquette to have any chance of getting an at-large bid.

BAYLOR (NET: 31, SOS: 71): The Bears had their six-game losing streak snapped at Texas (41). That’s survivable, but it has to be noted that the Bears have a slimmer margin for error due to the fact that they have a pair of horrific losses to Texas Southern (226) and Stephen F. Austin (289) at home.