Bubble News- Feb 21

The Bubble

We are getting closer to the selection Sunday and the bracket is starting to solidify. At least for the top 30 teams. The rest of the at-large bids are quite interesting to sort out. We believe 21 teams have resumes worth consideration for selection but only have 14 spots. That number of spots will decrease if there are any surprises in the conference tournaments. Those bid thieves throw a wrench in the teams on the bubble. We take a look at the teams in consideration.

Seton Hall– NET 36 5 quad 1 wins, strong SOS and

San Francisco– NET 29, 5 road wins- 3 quad 1 – have some bad losses

San Diego St- NET 32, 2-6 in quad 1 with no other losses- good SOS

Wyoming– NET 38, 8-2 in quad 1/2 with 8 road wins- quality of wins is low

North Carolina– NET 42 – Great SOS with only 1 quad 1 win- 1 bad loss

Wake Forest– NET 40- only 1 quad 1 win- poor SOS- no bad losses

Creighton– NET 62- Quality wins with 3 quad 1 wins- only 1 quad 3 loss

Miami Fla– NET 65- 4 quad 1 wins- 7 road wins- win over Duke- 3 quad 3 losses

Rutgers– NET 80- 6 quad 1 wins- top quality wins- poor SOS and multiple bad losses

Notre Dame– NET 57- 2 quad 1 wins- win over Kentucky- great SOS- 1 quad 3 loss

TCU– NET 56- 4-5 in quad 1-suspect SOS-4 road wins, no bad losses

SMU– NET 46- 5 quad 1/2 wins- beat Houston, swept Memphis, suspect SOS

Loyola Chicago– NET 37- 2 quad 1 wins- great SOS- 1 quad 3 loss

VCU– NET 58- 6-6 in quad 1/2 games- injury to key player in 8 games- great SOS- 1 quad 3 loss

Indiana NET 43- 5-9 in quad 1/2- win over Purdue- 2-6 on road- poor SOS- no bad losses

Florida– NET 49- 5-9 IN quad 1/2- win over Auburn-2-6 on road- quad 4 loss- key injury during a few games

Memphis– NET 44- 6-7 in quads1/2- wins over Alabama & Houston- great SOS- 2 quad 3 losses

BYU– NET 54- 7-8 in quads 1/2- solid SOS- 6 road wins 1 quad 4 loss- no big wins

Belmont– NET 55- only 1 quad 1 win- great SOS- no bad losses

Michigan– NET 34- 3 quad 1 wins- win over Purdue- too many overall losses- suspensions looming

Oregon– NET 63- 2 quad 1 wins- quality wins on road- 3 quad 3 losses

Cases can be made for any of these 21 to be included in the bracket. There is the annual debate between power 5 teams and mid major teams for slots. This year its Indiana and Florida compared to Loyola Chicago, SMU,VCU near the cut line. Teams like San Francisco and BYU are also difficult to seed. This year the ACC is down so there are a lot of teams with lower number of quad 1 wins but seem to be good enough to be in the field. How will the committee look at North Carolina, Notre Dame, Wake Forest and Miami.

We can see all 21 of these teams in the bracket. We can see many of these teams out of the bracket. What is true is that each of these teams needs to win more than they lose and win the key games remaining on their schedules. This list will condense as we get closer to selection Sunday

We also have 12 teams outside this list that have something positive on their resumes. If these twelve get hot, make a run in the conference tournaments, maybe they can slide into the bracket. March is near!