College Basketball Weekly: SEC Elites Clash + Musical Chairs on The Bubble

Save the Jon Rothstein tweets. We don’t need to pour it on. You know it’s the best month of the year. Now, after the first Saturday in the greatest month of them all, there’s a hoarder’s property worth of basketball to discuss. Here’s what we’ll get to on today’s College Basketball Weekly post:

• Notable Results of the week
• Three top-20 SEC matchups
• Big results on the SEC Bubble
• Other Bubble Risers (Gonzaga, Indiana, VCU)
• Other Bubble Fallers (Nebraska, SMU, Wake Forest)

Notable Results

(AP Ranking)

(4) Houston 69 @ (10) Texas Tech 61
(15) Michigan 49 @ Nebraska 46
(3) Florida 83 @ Georgia 88
(24) Mississippi State 73 @ (6) Alabama 111
New Mexico 65 @ San Diego State 73
(17) Kentucky 83 @ Oklahoma 82
(8) Michigan State 58 @ Maryland 55
Vanderbilt 86 @ (12) Texas A&M 84
Texas 81 @ Arkansas 86
(1) Auburn 94 @ (17) Kentucky 78
(12) Texas A&M 70 @ (3) Florida 89
(6) Alabama 76 @ (5) Tennessee 79
Arkansas 53 @ South Carolina 72
Georgia 83 @ Texas 67

Clash of the Titans

The three highest ranked-on-ranked matchups on Saturday featured six of the seven highest-ranked SEC teams, with (3) Florida handling (12) A&M at home, (1) Auburn cruising past (17) Kentucky in Rupp, and (5) Tenessee pulling off a miracle at home vs. (6) Alabama. Let’s dive in.

Tennessee creeps toward a 1-seed. After all the divisive takes about Jahmai Mashak and particularly his offense, the senior wing nailed a buzzer beater from 30+ feet to send his Volunteers to victory over Alabama in a Thomson-Boling Classic.

Jahmai Mashack‼️

It’s officially March 😤

pic.twitter.com/Cw6dxEUv7N

— Zach “🅂🄲🄷🅄🅉” Schumaker (@_SchuZ_) March 1, 2025

The SEC very well could land three of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Auburn and Florida look like mortal locks on the 1-line right now, Duke will grab one as well. So, Tennessee, Alabama and Houston are left to fend for the other, and while the Cougars are stampeding through the Big 12, Tennessee has now won four straight and is favored to win out with just five regular season losses — only to Auburn, Florida and Vanderbilt on the road, as well as twice vs. Kentucky. I mean, that resume is pretty flawless.

Florida’s roll continues, as does A&M’s spiral. You may be correct if you viewed Texas A&M as a suspect No. 7 team in the country a few weeks back. The Aggies just came back to water with four straight losses to Mississippi St., Vandy, Florida and Tennessee, and are in possible jeopardy of dropping to the No. 9 seed and a Wednesday game in the SEC Tournament if they don’t stop their slide.

Meanwhile, Florida is separating as the SEC No. 2 behind Auburn — and heck, they smacked the Tigers around on their own home court. The Gators boxed out Alabama and Tennessee in recent weeks to be the clear other No. 1 seed from the SEC for now, and whether they beat out Houston or Duke in the committee’s eyes is sort of irrelevant as long as they stay clear of the Tide and Volunteers down the stretch.

Speaking of Auburn, Bruce Pearl’s squad was in complete control as the longtime SEC head coach celebrated an emotional first career win in Rupp Arena. The loss + news of Jaxson Robinson’s season-ending surgery made for a sour day in the Bluegrass. But for Auburn? Tremendous performance. Since the shocking hiccup vs. Florida (only the No. 3 team in the country, LOL) Auburn re-asserted their dominance with road wins over the Wildcats and Alabama.

Bubble Watch: Dawgs & ‘Dores surge, others suffer

As we round into the final week of the regular season, the SEC has nine surefire NCAA Tournament teams and two bottom feeders in LSU and South Carolina completely out of the picture, barring a conference tournament run, of course. The bubble group? Vanderbilt (also 8-8 in SEC play), Georgia (6-10), Arkansas (6-10), Texas (5-11) and Oklahoma (4-12).

Let’s start with the positive, Vandy, who just scored their third straight ranked win, this time over Missouri in a rollicking match that featured a Tyler Nickel 3 at the second half horn to force overtime, where the Commodores cruised to a victory that may have just stamped them into the big dance for good. With eight SEC wins and 20 total, the Black and Gold could likely lose out and still have a safe spot in the tourney.

Vanderbilt is now a clear step above the cut compared to the other bubble contenders, but Georgia just made significant waves in that race over the last week, especially with a head-to-head win AT Texas. The Dawgs also toppled No. 3 Florida earlier in the week to now boast a resume headlined by wins against the Gators, St. John’s and Kentucky. That non-conference W over Slick Rick will be particularly appealing to the committee, I’ll bet.

But let’s talk about Texas. With their backs against the wall and needing to follow up last Saturday’s disaster loss vs. then-winless South Carolina with a home victory over a direct bubble rival, the Longhorns fell flat in a 16-point loss that ought to kill their season. Games at Mississippi State and home vs. Oklahoma are must-have this week.

Elsewhere, Arkansas soiled their seat in Columbia, mustering just 14 points in a half of basketball against those 1-14 South Carolina Gamecocks, who spoiled another Saturday for a bubble contender after last week’s Longhorn massacre by drumming Arkansas out of the building, leading by as much as 35 points midway through the second half of their blowout win. John Calipari had built momentum and pulled Arkansas off the bubble, but that clunker lands the Hogs right back on the chopping block.

As for Oklahoma, this week is the death rattle. The Sooners will gun for wins at home vs. Missouri and on the road against rival Texas. With 12 league losses already on their plate, OU looks like a cooked goose, but a win over the ranked Tigers sets up a matchup with Texas that could serve as an old western duel for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Bubble Risers & Fallers

RISERS

Indiana: High drama in Bloomington? Go figure. Indiana fired their conductor and wound up with a runaway train. Since IU announced that Mike Woodson would abandon his post at the end of the season, the Hoosiers rallied with a triumphant run to soar back into NCAA Tournament range. Wins over Purdue and Michigan State plus three straight overall have morale improved and postseason dreams alive at Indiana.

Gonzaga: The Zags took non-conference lumps and got bodied by a better St. Mary’s team in both WCC tilts to put a question mark on their tourney chances with a spotty resume in a weak, albeit improved, conference. NIT threats were never too serious with the reliable Mark Few, but Quad 1 road wins at Santa Clara and San Francisco to end the regular season just burst any remaining bubble discussion.

VCU: In Ryan Odom’s first season, his Rams are making headway on an at-large NCAA Tournament bid should they fall in the A-10 tourney. Speaking of that league, VCU leads by a game over George Mason at 14-2 but are virtually locked in as champs after beating the the Patriots a couple weeks ago as part of their active eight-game winning streak. At 24-5, this mid-major looks likely to break through with or without the auto-qualifier.

FALLERS

Nebraska: A season of peaks and valleys is headed for a low altitude finish in Lincoln. Coming off their first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade, Huskers fans were enchanted by a 12-2 start this year. Then came five straight losses in Big Ten play to deflate all excitement, followed by a four game win streak to put Nebraska right back on the map. However, they’ve now dropped four of five, womp womp.

SMU: The Mustangs really rode the fence in a bad ACC, taking care of the undesireables while falling to the top squads early on. But after losses to Wake Forest, Clemson and Stanford in the last three weeks, SMU has an unimpressive resume with several blemishes and little chance at more quality victories.

Wake Forest: For four long years, Steve Forbes has come up just short of the NCAA Tournament and will likely have to wait until year six to, perhaps, finally break through. It was a home loss to Georgia Tech in ’24, a home loss to Syracuse in ’23, an ACC tourney vs. BC as well in ’22, etc. — and now, Wake just dropped a home game vs. Virginia, virtually eliminating their postseason hopes unless they can win at Duke this week.