The Thursday of Championship Week is the busiest and infrequently most impactful non-NCAA match day on the faculty basketball calendar. All 5 of the most important conferences have a full slate of 4 video games, with the second spherical motion within the Huge Ten and SEC, and quarterfinal video games within the ACC, Huge 12 and Huge East.
Let’s take a look at probably the most essential video games of Thursday in every of the game’s greatest leagues.
ACC
No. 4 Wake Forest vs. No. 5 North Carolina (2:30 p.m. ET/ESPN)
It’s obvious at this level that North Carolina is the ACC’s solely hope of getting greater than three at-large bids to this yr’s NCAA match. The Tar Heels had been extraordinarily spectacular in Wednesday’s second spherical victory over Notre Dame, however a 20-point beatdown of a group with a dropping total document isn’t going to do a lot for the Choice Committee.
The true check begins Thursday afternoon towards a Wake Forest group that did every part it may down the stretch of the common season to play its means out of at-large consideration. Nonetheless, the Demon Deacons are supremely proficient and clipped the Heels by a degree of their solely common season assembly this yr.
A win for North Carolina would nearly actually arrange a “win and also you’re in” recreation towards arch-rival Duke within the semifinals on Friday. Fellow bubble boys are assuredly hoping that issues don’t get that far.
Huge Ten
No. 8 Indiana vs. No. 9 Oregon (Midday ET/Huge Ten Community)
Simply on the opposite facet of the bubble (it appears) is Indiana. The Hoosiers have grow to be one of many higher tales within the sport over the previous few weeks, going 5-2 since head coach Mike Woodson’s announcement that he wouldn’t be returning to Bloomington subsequent season, and taking part in their means from safely outdoors of the NCAA match to, presumably, within the discipline in the meanwhile.
The Hoosiers have an opportunity to attain a monumental victory Thursday afternoon over an Oregon group that’s already very safely within the discipline of 68. Lose, and it’s going to be a particularly anxious few days earlier than Choice Sunday.
Huge 12
No. 16 Colorado vs. No. 1 Houston (3 p.m. ET/ESPN2)
That is most likely nothing … it’s most likely nothing … BUT, now we have a possible all-time bid thief story brewing.
Colorado completed lifeless final within the Huge 12 this yr with a 3-17 document. Earlier than this week, they hadn’t received consecutive video games because the center of December. Now, after back-to-back upsets of 9-seed TCU and 8-seed West Virginia, the Buffaloes are the primary group to advance to the quarterfinals of any convention match after ending Sixteenth-or-lower within the common season since Tennessee within the 1931 (1931!) Southern Convention match.
Once more, that is most likely nothing … BUT, if the Buffaloes can one way or the other proceed the magic with a stunner over the very best group within the league, effectively, it is going to positively grow to be one thing.
Huge East
No. 4 Xavier vs. No. 5 Marquette (2:30 p.m.ET/Peacock)
Sure, the sport is gigantic for Xavier, which is located firmly on the bubble, however it’s additionally huge for a Marquette group that desperately must seize some optimistic momentum earlier than the Huge Dance.
These two groups have been getting in reverse instructions for weeks.
Xavier, which appeared to haven’t any shot on the NCAA match again in early February, heads to New York having ripped off seven consecutive victories. Marquette, which had authentic aspirations of a Huge East common season title not that way back, is 4-6 because the begin of February.
Bubble groups are rooting arduous for Marquette. Groups safely within the 4-8 seed vary are rooting for the Musketeers.
SEC
No. 5 Texas A&M vs. No. 13 Texas (3:30 p.m ET/SEC Community)
May I curiosity you in 14 of the 16 groups from the SEC making the NCAA match? No? Nicely it’d occur anyway.
If we’re working below the belief that Arkansas secured its spot within the Huge Dance by narrowly avoiding catastrophe towards South Carolina on Wednesday, then the SEC is already taking a look at getting 13 groups into the sphere, breaking the previous document for many groups from a single convention (11 by the 2011 Huge East).
If that’s in truth the case, the one group with work left to do is Texas, which kicked off its postseason run with a powerful upset of Vanderbilt on Wednesday. Beat Texas A&M on Thursday, and an entire lot of persons are going to be aware of the truth that the Longhorns have seven Quadrant-I victories, far more than many of the bubble groups they’re jockeying for place with.
