It’s never too early to start examining teams resumes for the NCAA tournament. The bubble can be scary, all it takes is one bad loss to knock you off it. That being said, let’s take a look at teams that helped or hurt their bubble cases.
- Indiana is safe. For now.
After knocking off Kansas in the first game of the year, the Hoosiers were deemed one of the best teams in the country. A national title contender, some said. But that turned quickly when they started the Big Ten season 1-3. Since then, however, they have turned it around. They didn’t look great against Penn State when things unraveled late, but they still prevented a bad loss. The big win came against Michigan State. James Blackmon was the best player on the court and Indiana knocked off another bubbly team in the Spartans. Right now they are safely in the tournament, but that could change any given week with how inconsistent the Big Ten is this year.
- Middle Tennessee needs to win out.
We all saw the talent Middle Tennessee had when it knocked off Michigan State in possibly the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history last year. The scary thing, however, is that they returned most of their roster. MTSU is arguably the best mid-major team in the country, and they will most likely win the Conference USA. But if they happen to slip up in the conference tournament, their only chance at making it as an at-large is if they win out in the regular season. It will be tough for the committee to leave out a team that went 18-0 in conference play and challenged themselves in the non-conference against VCU, Belmont and Vandy.
- Utah should be in.
Joe Lunardi currently has the Utes on the outside of the bubble. I have one thing to say to you, Joe. You’re wrong. Utah recorded a really solid win over a ranked USC team, and despite lacking another quality win, it has shown it can go toe to toe win the best. They were a couple of plays away in games against Butler, Xavier, UCLA and Arizona. Eventually, they will win a couple of these games and make the tournament easy.
- Iowa State needs to finish.
Iowa State is a dangerous team if they make the tournament (they should), but they need to finish some of these games to solidify their spot in the tournament. Four-point loss to Kansas. Two-point loss to Baylor. One-point loss to Cincinnati. Two-point loss to Gonzaga. See a trend? If they were able to pull out just one of these games, we probably wouldn’t even be having this conversation. They still have four games against West Virginia, Baylor and Kansas, so they have opportunities. But they need to learn how to finish to end the bubble talks.