Looks like there are "about" seven bubble slots available according to this math...
1 Bid Conf (18) | Clinched | Teams above the Bubble (40) | ||
A-Sun | E Tenn St | ACC (6) | UNC, Duke, Wake, Clemson, Florida St, Boston Col | |
Big South | Radford | Big East (7) | UCONN, Pitt, L'ville, Nova, Marquette, Syracuse, W Virginia | |
Colonial | VCU | Big Ten (5) | MSU, Pur, Ill, Wis, Ohio St | |
Ivy | Cornell | Big 12 (6) | OK, Kansas, Mizz, Tex, Ok St, Tex A&M | |
MAAC | Siena | Pac-10 (4) | Wash, UCLA, Cal, AZ St | |
Ohio Valley | Morehead St | SEC (2) | LSU, Tenn | |
Southern | Chattanooga | Atlantic 10 (2) | Xavier, Dayton | |
Sumit | NDSU | C-USA | Memphis | |
Sun Belt | W. Kentucky | Moutain West | BYU, Utah | |
Big Sky | Portland St | Horizon (2) | Cleveland State, Butler | |
Northeast | Robert Morris | Missouri Valley | Northern Iowa | |
WCC | Gonzaga | |||
Patriot | 13-Mar | WAC | Utah State | |
American East | 14-Mar | |||
Big West | 14-Mar | |||
MAC | 14-Mar | |||
MEAC | 14-Mar | |||
SWAC | 14-Mar | |||
Southland | 15-Mar |
48 spots taken, 65 available to start with leaves just 7 for the non-locks. Two more clinched on Thursday as Robert Morris won the NEC and Portland State won the Big Sky. Neither will have any effect on the bubble.
Wednesday was pretty tame but Thursday things will get hot all over the country.
What helped us on Wed
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Notre Dame lost to West Virginia. Very little helped today and this didn't really do much for us. West Virginia is in and Notre Dame was out anyway. The Irish could have gotten in by winning the Big East tourney which would have taken away one of those precious bubble-bids.
What hurt us on Wed
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Providence over DePaul - hurts a little but Providence still needs to do more work. The win helps them a little, now they can go ahead and lose.
Who are we fans of on Thursday...
- The Gophers. We need the Gophers to beat Northwestern. If they win I won't feel compelled to do a Bubble-ology on Friday morning.
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Louisville over Providence. I'd like to see the Cardinals win by 20.
- Iowa over Michigan. Most lists have us and Michigan neck and neck for one of the last Big Ten bids. A Hawkeye win would knock them out.
- UNLV over San Diego State. The Azteks are possibly team #8 out of seven available bubble spots. Getting knocked out early is what we need to happen. A run to win their tournament would be bad.
- NC State over Maryland. The Terps are right behind us and this would be bad for them.
- Virginia Tech as they face Miami. The Hurricanes are NOT far behind us in the bubble pecking order, go Hokies.
- Xavier over St. Louis. We just want Xavier to win their tournament, don't blow it like Butler did!
- Ole Miss over Kentucky. I have this recurring nightmare that Kentucky makes an SEC run to the championship game and then they get into the NCAAs. Go Rebels.
- Arizona State over Arizona. Another bubble team we are fighting with for one of those remaining spots.
- Indiana over Penn State. I know, I know. Next thing you know I'll be wanting the Wolves to make the playoffs.
- Wyoming over New Mexico. Utah is IN out of the Mountain West, New Mexico is close so a loss in the quarterfinals would be nice.
- St. Joes over Temple. Knock the owls to the NIT.
I could go on with a handful more games that bear some meaning but I think that is enough to track for one day. Thursday is going to be a big day in bubble land, let's see a Gopher win and lock up one of the seven remaining.