After Rick Majerus' sudden passing, Jim Crews has helped St. Louis ride wave of emotion. (USAT)

The Bracket Big Board takes into consideration past returns, current performance and expected future gains in determining who should be included among the field of 68 (31 automatic and 37 at-large bids). Essentially, the Bracket Big Board is a cheat sheet designed for amateur bracketologists if they were filling out a Tourney Pick 'Em '13 entry today. The Triple-B, the most accurate bracket predictor among macro-sites over the past five years, is updated every Monday until the dance card is unveiled March 17.

Montana's Will Cherry (Getty Images)

1. Big Sky favorite Montana lost more than just a basketball game when Davidson beat the Grizzlies 93-87 on Saturday evening. Already without leading scorer Mathias Ward as a result of a sprained arch suffered its previous game, Montana also lost all-conference guard Will Cherry when he injured the same foot he broke before the season. Cherry fears it's broken again, which would be a crippling loss to a team that had Cinderella potential in March had it been full strength.

2. As Michigan lost three of four games and Indiana surged to the top of the Big Ten and the national rankings, Victor Oladipo rode that momentum to the forefront of the national player of the year race. On Sunday, Michigan point guard Trey Burke sent a reminder that, yes, he's still here, scoring 26 points on just 11 shots and dishing out eight assists to lead the Wolverines to a 71-58 win over Illinois.

3. Arizona took advantage of the uncertainty about Ben Howland's future at UCLA and landed a Los Angeles recruit the Bruins wanted badly. Point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright, a consensus top 50 recruit in the class of 2014, committed to the Wildcats on Sunday, meaning he'll likely be the understudy to Duquesne transfer T.J. McDonnell for a year before taking over the starting job.

4. It looks increasingly possible that Seton Hall's top recruit in the class of 2013 may never don a Pirates uniform. Aquille Carr, the diminutive yet high-flying Baltimore guard known as the "Crimestopper," told the Baltimore Sun he is considering playing professionally overseas next year. "Seton Hall is still my choice right now," Carr said. "But I'm thinking about a lot more stuff that I could advance to. I think I'm ready to make it like my job."

5. One of the biggest reasons Oklahoma is in position to return to the NCAA tournament in just Lon Krueger's second year of a rebuilding process is because the Sooners' seniors have not balked at ceding playing time to talented newcomers. Andrew Fitzgerald,Sam Grooms and Cameron Clark, who had amassed a combined 165 starts prior to this season, have started just three games combined this year.

Evan Ravenel (Getty Images)For a team that plays in the nation's most formidable conference and had been a fixture in the top 15 nearly the entire season, Ohio State's résumé was surprisingly thin entering the week.

The Buckeyes were in no danger of missing the NCAA tournament because all seven of their losses came against quality teams, but they also hadn't beaten anyone of note either in the Big Ten or outside it with the exception of home wins over Michigan and Wisconsin.

Credit Ohio State for rising to the challenge this week and addressing the deficiencies in its profile with two marquee home wins. The Buckeyes followed up a rout of Minnesota on Wednesday night by rallying from a nine-point second-half deficit on Sunday to hand fourth-ranked Michigan State a costly 68-60 loss.

Aaron Craft spearheaded the comeback, shredding Michigan State off the dribble to score a career-high 21 points and dish out six assists. The Spartans responded to the onslaught to cut the Buckeyes' lead to 61-59, but Craft seized momentum back by zooming by Keith Appling for a lunging layup with 2:22 left.

If Ohio State (20-7, 10-5) was trending toward a modest No. 6 or 7 seed coming into the week, then the Buckeyes now have realistic hope of moving up a couple seed lines by Selection Sunday. They're now only a game out of second place in the Big Ten with road games at Northwestern and top-ranked Indiana up next before a visit from Illinois in the regular season finale.

In the visiting locker room, the ramifications of Sunday's game were not so rosy.