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Duke’s Grayson Allen, right, guards Syracuse’s John Gillon, left, on Feb. 22. Allen missed Saturday’s game at Miami due to an ankle injury. Coach Mike Krzyzewski will make a game-day decision as to whether or not Allen and Amile Jefferson will play Tuesday against Florida State. Nick Lisi AP LINKEDIN GOOGLE+ PINTEREST REDDIT PRINT ORDER REPRINT OF THIS STORY NO. 15 FLORIDA STATE AT NO. 17 DUKE When: 7 p.m. Tuesday Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham TV: ESPN Projected starting lineups Florida State (23-6, 11-5) G Xavier Rathan-Mayes 10.3 ppg, 5.0 apg G Dwayne Bacon 16.6 ppg, 3.9 pg G Terance Mann 8.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg F Jonathan Isaac 12.8 ppg, 7.3 rpg C Michael Ojo 5.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg Duke (22-7, 10-6 ACC) G Grayson Allen 15 ppg, 3.9 apg G Luke Kennard 19.9 ppg 5.2 rpg G Matt Jones 7.7 ppg, 3 rpg F Jayson Tatum 16.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg F Amile Jefferson 11.1 ppg, 8.5 rpg Three things to know ▪ Grayson Allen and Amile Jefferson are still pretty banged up as Duke enters its home finale. It will be senior night for Jefferson and guard Matt Jones, and coach Mike Krzyzewski said Jefferson’s and Allen’s status will be a game-day decision. Jefferson missed two games, including an 88-72 loss at Florida State on Jan. 10, to a bruised bone on his right foot. But he’s played through it since then. He is four points away from the 1,000-point club. Allen missed Saturday’s 55-50 loss at Miami due to a left ankle injury. Allen scored a team-high 18 points when Duke beat FSU in Durham last year, 80-65. ▪ Without Jefferson in the first cycle, FSU scored 56 paint points and 19 off second chances. Jefferson has a career-high 42 blocks this season and has anchored Duke’s inside presence all season. ▪ Florida State hasn’t done particularly well on the road. The Seminoles are 8-0 when they’re at home and 3-5 when they’re not. FSU is in a second-place logjam with Notre Dame and Louisville. If FSU wins out, it would take control over second place, behind North Carolina. The Noles squeaked past Clemson, 76-74, in its previous game, which was on the road. Their other two roads wins were at Virginia (Dec. 31, 60-58) and Miami (Feb. 1, 75-57). Jessika Morgan Every day through Selection Sunday we’ll update our Bracket Watch, giving you an up-to-date field of 68. Each of those columns will begin with a look at the games that night relevant to seeding at the top and in the middle of the field. While the Bubble Watch covers the back end of the field, the Bracket Watch will focus on the teams that are safely in the dance, and what they stand to gain—or lose—every time they take the floor. Tuesday’s seeding games (all times Eastern, locks are italicized) Florida State at Duke, 7 pm The Blue Devils still have plenty of time to work their way up the field, especially with a trip to North Carolina looming this weekend, but this could be a real prize for Florida State. The Seminoles own six top-25 wins, and a 9-2 record against the top 50. If they win out, and Duke beats North Carolina on Saturday, the Seminoles will earn a share of the ACC regular season championship. If they do that and go on to win the ACC tournament, they could sneak onto the top line. Indiana at Purdue, 7 pm Purdue can’t increase its tournament profile on Tuesday, but a loss would certainly indict its case for one of the top-16 seeds. If any Big Ten team is likely to be seeded fourth or better in a region, it’s the Boilermakers, but even they might be a longshot. While they’re 6-4 against the RPI top 50, just one of those wins came against a top-25 team (Notre Dame). Given that we already know the committee is down on the Big Ten, as indicated by the absence of the conference in the midseason reveal three weeks ago, Purdue still may have work to do to be among the field’s top-16 teams. Vanderbilt at Kentucky, 9 pm Vanderbilt fans should jump over to the Bubble Watch to see what’s at stake for the Commodores. Kentucky has its sights set on a No. 2 seed, with the top line likely out of reach. If the Wildcats move up to a 2-seed, they’d have a shot at staying as close to home as possible, which, this season, is the South Region, hosted in Memphis. Vanderbilt gave Kentucky all it could handle the first time the teams met, with the Wildcats pulling out an 87-81 win in Nashville. If Kentucky is going to reach its seed ceiling, it likely cannot lose the rest of the way, including in the SEC tournament. Midwest Region One week ago, UCLA was a No. 4 seed, running third in the Pac-12 behind Oregon and Arizona. How did the Bruins jump to a No. 2 seed, leapfrogging the Wildcats in the process? Well, of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without their dramatic win in Tucson over the weekend. While the Bruins are still 1.5 games behind Oregon and Arizona in the Pac-12 standings, the win likely brought the teams level in the eyes of the selection committee. UCLA went 2-2 against the other two, while Oregon went 2-1 and Arizona went 1-2 (the Ducks and Wildcats played each other only once). That brings us to the overall resumes, where a clear-eyed comparison favors UCLA over Arizona. The Bruins are ranked 13th on kenpom.com and 15th in the RPI. The Wildcats are 23rd on kenpom.com and ninth in the RPI. We can call that effectively a wash. Where the Bruins start to separate themselves is in the quantity and quality of their best wins. They are 3-2 against the RPI top 25 and 5-3 against the top 50. In addition to beating Arizona on the road and Oregon at home, UCLA took down Kentucky in Lexington. The Wildcats, meanwhile, are 1-4 against the top 25 and 4-4 against the top 50. After their road win over the Bruins, their next best win came at USC. The Trojans will likely make the NCAA tournament, but that doesn’t measure up to UCLA’s second-, third-, or maybe even fourth-best win (Michigan). It isn’t often that a team jumps two lines with one win, but UCLA’s victory in Tucson on Saturday vaulted them in front of Arizona. That pushes them all the way up to the 2-line, and knocks the Wildcats down to a No. 3 seed. East Region We’re going to reach all the way down to the No. 9 seed in this region in an effort to quell the fears of the nation’s most anxious fan base. It has been ugly recently, Northwestern fans. But you don’t need to worry too much. At least not yet. Yes, Saturday’s loss to Indiana was bad. After allowing the Hoosiers to close the first half on a 22-0 run, the Wildcats came out firing in the second half, erasing a 10-point deficit in just more than six minutes. With 1:33 left in the game, Northwestern led by seven and appeared on its way to the final win that many believe will lock up the first ever trip to the NCAA tournament in school history. The Hoosiers would go onto score the final eight points of the game, keeping their fledgling tournament hopes alive with a 63-62 win while simultaneously increasing the collective blood pressure in Evanston, Ill., a few notches. The Wildcats have now lost five of their last seven games, jeopardizing what just a couple weeks ago appeared to be a likely tournament bid. Let’s take a step back, however, and look at Northwestern’s entire body of work. The Wildcats have three top-50 wins, including a road victory at Wisconsin. They also beat Dayton, which is all but assured of a trip to the dance, on a neutral floor. They don’t have a loss outside the RPI top 100, with their three worst losses coming to Illinois (twice) and Indiana. The Wildcats are ranked 50th in RPI and 36th on kenpom.com. That isn’t the resume of a tournament lock, but it is one likely to earn a bid, especially in this year’s bubble climate. No matter what, there will be 68 teams in the field when the bracket is unveiled on Selection Sunday. For now, Northwestern is still on track to earn one of those spots. They could remove any doubt with a win over Michigan or Purdue at home this week.