Joe Lunardi Reveals His 'Last Four In' For 2025 NCAA Tournament

Originally posted on The Spun | By Kameron Duncan | Last updated Mar 15, 2025 11:38 AM ET

Saturday is the final chance for many teams around the country to solidify their place in the NCAA Tournament. Spots are on the line in conference tournaments, and the teams that win those events will earn automatic bids.

Every automatic bid takes a spot away from a potential at-large team, and that's even more true in conferences where a bid is stolen by a team that makes a run in their conference tourney.

With Saturday's matchups in mind and an eye on the bubble, one of the sport's longest-tenured bracket experts predicted the four teams that would earn the final at-large bids to the big dance.

ESPN's Joe Lunardi has provided his "Last Four In" for the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The bracket expert believes that West Virginia, San Diego State, Xavier and Boise State will be the last four teams to make it in.

North Carolina, Texas, Indiana and Dayton are all on Lunardi's "First Four Out" as the teams who will narrowly miss an at-large bid.

West Virginia's Big 12 tournament run ended with a loss to Colorado, but Lunardi feels they've done enough at 19-13 in a tough conference to earn a bid. San Diego State lost to Boise State in the Mountain West tournament, but Lunardi believes their 21-9 overall record is enough to get in.

Xavier fell to Marquette on Thursday, but they've been a competitive team in one of the better conference in the country in the Big East, and Lunardi has them dancing after going 21-11 on the year.

TULSA, OKLAHOMA - MARCH 22: Opening tip off between Montell McRae of Buffalo and Romello White of Arizona State during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship at BOK Center on March 22, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Conference titles in the ACC, Big East and Big 12 will be decided on Saturday evening. Teams like Duke and Houston are looking to win to solidify themselves as top seeds heading into the tournament, while opponents like Creighton and Arizona are looking for upsets.

Tomorrow's slate will see the final conference champions crowned in leagues like the SEC and Big Ten. After the dust settles on a very important Saturday in college basketball, we'll see which teams can put themselves in the driver's seat when it comes to earning a bid in the NCAA Tournament.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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