Joe Lunardi updates No. 1 seeds, bubble watch after chaotic day of conference tournaments

It was a wild day of conference tournaments across college basketball and several teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble will pay the price. Purdue, North Carolina and Houston all lost in their respective conference tournaments.

NC State, which was projected among the “next four out” according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, defeated the Tar Heels in the ACC Championship to earn an automatic bid. Oregon was also among the “next four out” but punched its ticket with a win against Colorado in the Pac-12 title game.

Purdue, North Carolina and Houston are all still projected to be No. 1 seeds despite their losses. However, UConn will earn the overall No. 1 seed after winning the Big East Tournament on Saturday.

“Coming into the week we had three teams — Purdue, Houston and UConn — that were in a virtual tie for No. 1 overall,” Lunardi said Saturday on SportsCenter. “UConn is the last man standing. They’re gonna be No. 1 overall tomorrow, but it’s not gonna change anyone’s regional assignments. The Huskies were always gonna be East playing in Brooklyn and Boston. Purdue was always gonna be Midwest and of course Houston South. That leaves North Carolina, another loser tonight, the Tar Heels will be No. 1 out West but they’ll start in Charlotte on Thursday afternoon.”

Although the top seeds remain basically unaffected by the upsets, however, it’s caused a lot of movement on the NCAA bubble. Virginia, Seton Hall and St. John’s have all fallen out of the tournament field as a result.

Now others such as Michigan State, Oklahoma and Texas A&M will find themselves sweating it out on Selection Sunday as they are among the last few teams in Lunardi’s projections.

“We just spent several minutes discussing the top line and what a disruptive day it has been,” he said. “The top line has been peace and quiet compared to the bubble where we’ve had bid-stealing left and right. At this moment, three teams who were in the tournament at the start of the day are no longer. That would be Virginia, Seton Hall and we’re still waiting on St. John’s, the last team in, because Oregon and (Colorado) are going down to the wire in the Pac-12 Championship game. …Teams near the cut line will have dropped an entire seed line in one day.”

It’s certainly set to be an interesting Selection Sunday with several bubble teams awaiting to find out their NCAA Tournament fates. It’s always a crazy day, but this year it’s been made even crazier by some of Saturday’s results.

The tournament field is set to be announced at 6 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS.