JackCentral

Selection Sunday is merely just a few days away, and for some teams on the bubble it will be a great day, for others it will be a harsh realization.
The bubble is an interesting part of the tournament process. The bubble is made up of teams that did not win their conference championships and who haven’t had a real strong season that now must rely on the selection committee to put them into the tournament.
The big thing this year is that there are some major teams on the bubble that are usually not on the bubble. Teams like Arizona, Syracuse, Oregon, as well as teams like Arkansas are still looking to impress the committee in their conference tournaments.
A team like Virginia Commonwealth might have had their bubble burst by losing in their conference tournament.
Working against teams on the bubble are teams that are a lock to go to the tournament losing in their conference tournaments.
Take Gonzaga, for example. The Zags, who are already in the tournament, were the No. 1 seed in the West Coast Conference tournament. Gonzaga lost to San Diego in the tournament championship. San Diego was not even going to make the tournament unless they won their conference. This means that the WCC will get one more bid than expected and one of the teams on the bubble will not get in.
There is more potential conference chaos out there with Butler playing Cleveland State. Butler, like Gonzaga, is already in the NCAA tournament based on their performance during the regular season. These two teams split their regular season series, and if Cleveland State wins, another bubble team will be left out of the big dance.
Now the bubble teams can help themselves with a good showing in their conference tournament.
Take Arizona, for example. The Wildcats went 3-7 in their last 10 conference games. Even though Arizona has the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country, they are clearly on the bubble.
Arizona can help themselves if they first beat Oregon State in their first conference tournament game. They should beat Oregon State; the Beavers went winless in conference play at a stellar 0-18. So if Arizona beats OSU and then pulls an upset against Stanford, the Cats should be in the tournament.
A team with 20 wins as is the case with Arkansas can still be on the bubble, based on who they played in their non-conference schedule. The Razorbacks are 20-10 on the season, but according to sources like ESPN, they still need wins in the conference tourney to get an NCAA bid.
So teams that are on the bubble come Sunday will go through the most grueling hour of their season. No, it will not be on the court or drawing up a play to win the game, it will be on a couch watching the selection show.
With every region that is announced, the anxiety will grow until they are either mentioned or left out.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.