Penn State picked up its two biggest wins of its seven-game winning streak, a road sweep of top 10 Wisconsin. The Nittany Lions jumped up to No. 4 in the NPI with the wins, and as of this morning, PSU is in a tie for the No. 3 spot with North Dakota. As we turn the calendar to February next week, the tournament picture continues to tighten up.
As of this morning, the NCAA Tournament picture looks like this, based on NPI and conference standings. Please note that projected conference tournament winners are in italics and are based on current in-conference point percentage:
Locks (5): Michigan, Michigan State, North Dakota, Penn State, Western Michigan
Safe (5): Minnesota-Duluth, Quinnipiac, Providence, Cornell, Wisconsin
Bubble In (5): St. Thomas, Dartmouth, Denver, Boston College, UConn
Automatic Qualifiers (1): Bentley
Bubble Out (5): Augustana, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State, Harvard, Bowling Green
My projected bracket looks like this:
Some things to note here:
No. 2 Michigan State at No. 4 Penn State- Friday (6pm on Big Ten Plus) and Saturday (1pm on BTN)
No. 1 Michigan at Ohio State- Friday (6:30pm on Big Ten Plus) and Saturday (5pm on Big Ten Plus)
No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth at No. 13 Denver- Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 8pm
No. 24 Michigan Tech at No. 11 St. Thomas- Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 8pm