Bracketology Bubble Watch: Michigan State tries to pick up a big win vs. Michigan to boost its resume

Jerry Palm breaks down the résumés of the bubble teams taking the court on Thursday

By Jerry Palm

Mar 4, 2021 at 12:02 pm ET • 1 min read

USATSI

We had a conference champion crowned in one of Wednesday's bubble games and another bubbler moved into first place in their conference standings.

San Diego State won at UNLV to clinch the Mountain West regular-season championship and exit the bubble. The Aztecs will be the top seed in what could be a pretty competitive and important conference tournament..

Oregon beat UCLA to move into first place in the Pac-12 and is also off of the bubble for now. The Ducks won their sixth game out of seven that is has played in the last 14 days.

Syracuse also picked up a nice win – in fact, its best of the season – at home over Clemson. The Orange could still stand a win of some quality away from home, but that will have to wait for another day.

It was not so good for a couple of the other teams in action. Seton Hall's tournament hopes took a blow when the Pirates lost at home to surging UConn. They are now just 13-11 with a must win game at St. John's left in the regular season.

Stanford checked out of the bubble the wrong way with an embarrassing 79-42 shellacking at USC. That is the fourth straight loss for the Cardinal and two of those are bad losses. There is no reason to believe Stanford can play its way into the field as an at-large team now.

Thursday's action is light, but there is one big-time opportunity to make a statement to the selection committee.

Here are the bubble teams in action Thursday. All times Eastern

	Michigan St.
at Michigan, 7 p.m. (ESPN) -- Michigan State has picked up some big wins to play itself into contention for an at-large bid. Last week, they beat Ohio State and Illinois to rocket from off the bubble to into the bracket for now. A win at what must be an angry Michigan would all but clinch it for Michigan State.
	Utah St.
vs. Wyoming, 9:30 p.m. (FS1) -- We welcome Utah State back to the bubble after a brief hiatus. The Aggies primary problem with their resume is a couple of bad losses outside the league. Suffice it to say, they cannot stand any more of those, so this is a must win game for Utah State.