Bracketology winners and losers: Ole Miss is conference tournament week’s Cinderella
A season to forget for Ole Miss will have an unforgettable ending, no matter what happens from here. The Rebels stunned Alabama in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament Friday, outlasting the Crimson Tide 80-79 for their third victory in three days.
Ole Miss needs two more wins to reach the NCAA Tournament. But after eliminating three projected teams in three days, the Rebels shouldn’t be ruled out. After all, they’ve never trailed thus far in what is becoming the biggest Cinderella story of conference tournament week.
A season after reaching the Sweet 16, Ole Miss lost 12 of its final 13 regular season games. The precipitous slide left coach Chris Beard’s club as the No. 15 seed for the SEC tournament. They’re still just 15-19 after Friday’s win, but after entering the week with a 300-1 odds of winning the SEC tournament, hope is alive.
Will the Rebels be able to continue their race on Saturday? They will have no choice if they want to access the Great Dance. Regardless, it was a fun ride in Nashville for a team that most had left for dead earlier in the week.
Here’s a look at other winners and losers from Friday’s bracketology-driven action.
Get up-to-date results, plus what they mean for the NCAA Tournament bubble and seeding with our CBS Sports LIVE BLOG from Bracketology.
Winner: Atlantic’s 10 Pillars Move Forward
The top two seeds in the Atlantic 10 were each tested in the quarterfinals, but Saint Louis and VCU both found a way to survive and advance. Top-seeded Billikens rallied from a 21-point deficit to edge George Washington 88-81 behind 22 points from Robbie Avila, who scored 15 in a big second half for a St. Louis team that struggled to finish 3-3 in the regular season.
VCU trailed Duquesne by seven in the first half before stabilizing for a 71-66 victory. The win kept the Rams’ hopes alive for another day, as they will remain in the “bottom four” within CBS Sports Bracketology. The A10’s hopes of being a two-bid league are alive and well.
Loser: Auburn’s hopes dwindle
VCU hanging around on the right side of the bubble was bad news for Auburn, which will likely need the Atlantic 10 and Mountain West to be single-bid leagues. The Tigers (17-16) can do nothing but sit, hope and pray after losing to Tennessee on Thursday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. But they’re firmly on the wrong side of the bubble in CBS Sports Bracketology, and they didn’t get the help they needed from VCU.
Loser: Illinois falls from second seed
Illinois fell from the No. 2 seed on CBS Sports Bracketology with its 91-88 overtime loss to Wisconsin in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The Illini are now 0-4 in overtime since early February. If the opposite were true, this team would be in the running for the final No. 1 seed. But excellent predictive metrics can only take you so far, and the Illini (24-8) won’t have room for a No. 2 seed in Selection Sunday. In fact, with draft metrics in the mid-teens, Illinois should now be happy if they get the third seed.
Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd and John Blackwell make their case for America’s best backcourt in comeback against Illinois
Isaac Trotter
Winner: Purdue is back in the No. 2 seed mix
Purdue is now CBS Sports Bracketology’s second final seed — for now — after beating Nebraska 74-58 in the Big Ten Tournament quarter-finals. The Boilermakers desperately needed a commanding victory after losing four of six games to close the regular season. To finish in second place, the Boilermakers may still need another victory. Iowa State is lurking in the mix for a No. 2 seed and owns a head-to-head win over Purdue, which could be a factor if they are eliminated side-by-side.
Loser: Seton Hall bows out
Seton Hall’s overall aspirations were bleak at the start of the day. But they were officially extinguished in a 78-68 loss to St. John’s in the semifinals of the Big East tournament. Although the Pirates have 21 wins, they have just one win over a projected at-large team (NC State), and they will come into Selection Sunday well outside the top 50 in the all-important wins-above-the-bubble metric. They were a great defensive team that simply lacked the offensive firepower to break through and score decisive victories.
Winner: Arizona makes a comeback
Arizona fell behind 14-2 from the start and trailed by eight in the second half. But the Wildcats rallied to a thrilling 82-80 victory over Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament Semifinals. The win keeps Arizona alive in the race for the No. 1 seed in the Big Dance, as they play for a “double title” Saturday after winning the Big 12 regular season title by two games. Anthony Dell’Orso played the role of hero with four 3-pointers in the second half and finished with a game-high 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting.
Loser: Tennessee fades against Vanderbilt
A day after using a 20-0 second-half run to come back and beat Auburn, Tennessee found itself on the wrong side of a similar equation in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Vanderbilt used a 10-0 run to flip the script on the Volunteers and earn a 75-68 victory over its in-state rival. Vandy remains firmly in the No. 4 seed line in CBS Sports Bracketology, and the Commodores aren’t done yet, as losses to Alabama and Nebraska may have opened a narrow path to the No. 3 seed line.
Winner: Florida seems inevitable
Florida had its worst 3-point shooting performance of the season and still kept Kentucky at arm’s length in a 71-63 win in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. The Gators needed the win to maintain their hold on CBS Sports Bracketology’s latest No. 1 seed, and the outcome was little in doubt. The defending national champions own the nation’s second-longest winning streak at 12 games – behind High Point with 14 games – and are two wins away from repeating as SEC Tournament champions. A repeat of the national title also appears to be entirely possible.
Icy shooting barely phased red-hot Florida against Kentucky; Is a repeat of the Gators’ national title inevitable?
David Cobb
