:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71948967/1246854645.0.jpg)
Monday night saw a top-10 matchup in the Big 12 as No. 9 Kansas beat No. 5 Texas in a close game. Further east, we saw an ACC blowout as No. 18 Miami toppled Duke in the Sunshine State. Let’s take a look at what this means for bracketology with just a month left in the regular season.
Key games for bracketology
Texas 80, Kansas 88
A single-digit loss against a top 10 team shouldn’t tank Texas too much, but they’re right on the cusp of getting that No. 1 seed and could fall to a No. 2 here — they’ve already been in the second spot in Joe Lunardi’s brackets. Kansas holds tight to that top seed with this win, despite their third-place spot in the Big 12 standings.
A blowout here could have changed a lot more, but Kansas covered the 3.5-point spread by a few points more, so this shouldn’t have too much effect on the brackets aside from getting viewers excited about the type of games that are to come in March.
Duke 59, Miami 81
Duke got absolutely bulldozed by the Canes on both ends of the court on Monday night. They were sitting around a No. 6 seed before this, but this will be a hit worth at least one seeding drop, if not more. With plenty of ACC bids and a tight field in the conference, Duke will still end up around the middle of the pack in March, but this is an interesting preview.
The Blue Devils beat Miami and Xavier earlier in the season, but we haven’t seen them best a ranked opponent recently. They take on No. 8 Virginia in yet another test in their next appearance, and another tough loss would be a bad omen for what things will look like next month.
Bubble Watch
No games impacted the bubble on Monday night.