It must be a glorious day to be a North Carolina fan. The Tar Heels ruined Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's retirement party in front of almost 100 of his former players and picked up an enormous win for their tournament resume.
UNC's win over Duke is their first over a team that is certain to make the NCAA Tournament. That is no small thing. No team had made the tournament without such a win since 1998. One win over a fellow tournament team does not guarantee anything, but zero wins seemed to.
This will also be the best win on North Carolina's tournament resume on selection Sunday because it is a road win over the best team by far in the ACC.
In another big rivalry game, Indiana saw a poorly timed half-court shot go wide and the Hoosiers fell to Purdue 69-67. IU now sits at 11-12 against the top three quadrants and being below. 500 against that group does not usually get teams in the NCAA tournament. The Hoosiers are also 4-8 away from home, with their best of those wins coming over Notre Dame in Indianapolis.
Check out all the teams on Palm's Bubble Watch, the field of the 68 and the entire bracket on the Bracketology hub
Here are the "last four in" and "first four out" followed by the bubble teams in action Sunday. All times Eastern
| Last Four In | Record | NET |
|---|---|---|
| SMU | 21-7 | 50 |
| Memphis | 18-9 | 41 |
| Wake Forest | 23-8 | 38 |
| Rutgers | 17-12 | 76 |
| First four out | Record | NET |
| Michigan | 16-13 | 34 |
| Florida | 19-12 | 53 |
| VCU | 21-8 | 51 |
| Loyola-Chicago | 24-7 | 25 |
Bubble teams in action Sunday
| 1 |  |
| vs. Houston, 12 p.m. | CBS, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App (Free) -- Memphis beat Houston on the road for its biggest win of the season so far and may need to get this one too. The Tigers did some significant damage to their tournament resume early, but have been playing very well of late to get back into contention. There is less pressure to perform in the AAC Tournament if the Tigers complete the season sweep of the Cougars. | |
| 2 |  |
| vs. Penn State, 12 p.m. | Big Ten Network, fuboTV (Try for free) -- If not for more than a few questionable losses, Rutgers would be comfortably in the field. That is not the case though, so the Scarlet Knights need this one. Penn State may not have a great record, but the Nittany Lions are tough to play. | |
| 3 |  |
| vs. Ohio State, 12:30 p.m. | Fox, fuboTV (Try for free) -- Michigan's loss to Iowa on Thursday has the Wolverines in a bind. They start the day at 16-13 overall, which is one game short of the historic threshold to get an at-large bid. Invariably, a team has needed to be four games over .500 to have a chance to get in the field. If Michigan cannot beat the Buckeyes, it would need three wins in the conference tournament to get to that mark. A victory vs. Ohio State means the Wolverines would only need one win next week. Mind you, four wins above .500 does not guarantee anything. It just gives some realistic hope. | |
| 4 |  |
| vs. Drake in MVC Tournament Championship, 2 p.m. | CBS, CBSSports.com, CBS Sports App (Free) -- The Ramblers can erase all doubt this afternoon by beating Drake for the first time in three tries this season and claiming the automatic bid from the Missouri Valley Conference. Their chances are slim otherwise, despite a gaudy NET ranking. | |
| 5 |  |
| vs. Tulane, 3 p.m. | ESPN+ -- SMU finds itself in my "Last Four In" for this morning's bracket due in no small part to a couple of bad losses. This is an opportunity to add to that list, but SMU is in no position to take a third bad loss. | |
Note – all references to NCAA Tournament selection records and trends refer only to pre-pandemic tournaments. Due to shortened schedules and a relatively small number of non-conference games in 2021, those rankings were not reliable enough to be considered.
