March Madness is just around the corner and you’ll often hear the term “Bubble Team”. For those of you who don’t follow college basketball, we’ll get you filled in real quickly. The NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament sets a field of 65 teams to compete for the national championship ever year. The committee awards 31 bids to conference champions, leaving 34 schools receiving an at-large bid.
Any bubble team looking to make the “Big Dance” has a whole lot of work to do before the regular season ends. This year, maybe more than ever, there are teams from the mid-major conferences threatening the traditional powerhouses for a chance at making the 65-team field. While it’s rare that a bubble team makes it deep into the tournament, the parody that is college basketball this season will leave the door open for anyone in the tournament to take a shot at a title.
Taking a look at some of the teams from the “Big 6,” you may be surprised to find schools such as Maryland, Syracuse, Louisville, Arizona, Kentucky, and Indiana on the verge of spending late March on the couch. Poor conference records and the lack of quality wins could send these programs into a downward spiral and send their coaches to the hot seat or unemployment (just ask the Hoosiers’ Mike Davis).
Maryland failed to miss the tournament last year and that effort included two wins over Duke. The Terrapins could be on their way to the NIT again. The Terps own a mediocre record in the Atlantic Coast Conference and finish the regular season, with three of their final four games outside of College Park. Also, non-conference wins against Arkansas and Minnesota just don’t measure up.
It was just three years ago when Syracuse won the national championship behind the efforts of freshman Carmelo Anthony. The Orange Crush appear to be missing the talent to compete in arguably the best conference in basketball. The difference between this year’s team and past squads is their vulnerability at the Carrier Dome. Syracuse has dropped four games at home this year, including a setback to Bucknell.
Louisville parallels Syracuse as another school with a big name, yet lacking in talent. The Cardinals have been inconsistent all season long and the non-conference slate was filled with cupcakes. They did play intrastate rival Kentucky and wound up losing to a Tubby Smith team that is the worst in his tenure.
This leads us to Kentucky. The Southeastern Conference isn’t exactly a powerhouse this season, but the Wildcats do own a winning record and have played better as of late. Non-conference victories over West Virginia and Louisville help, but defeats to Iowa, North Carolina and Indiana hurt. The SEC Tournament will be huge along with the two last games of the regular season, at Tennessee and vs. Florida.
Things in Indiana can’t be much worse than they are today. With head coach Mike Davis already stepping down at the end of the season, the Hoosiers find themselves losers of six of the last seven with the latest defeat coming at the hands of Penn State. The Hoosiers have games at Illinois and Michigan remaining along with a home date with Michigan State, it looks as though the boys of Bloomington will be fighting for an NIT birth.
How many teams will the Pac 10 send to the tournament? If the answer is five, then Arizona is in, but if its four, then these ‘Cats might be staying home in March. ‘Zona has been horrible on the road this year and have dropped five of the last six games. They finish the season with three straight at Tucson and might need to reach the finals of the Pac 10 tournament to gain a berth.
Think Rick Pitino is going to enjoy watching the likes of Creighton, Wichita St., Bucknell, and Air Force from his home? There is a good chance he can invite Tubby Smith, Lute Olson, Jim Boeheim, and Gary Williams over for dinner too. With a coaching cast that strong, what went wrong?
What went wrong is that the conferences in which these coaches reside are simply too tough. The Big East is likely to get seven or eight slots in the dance out of a possible 16 schools, while the ACC will have at least five. The Big-10 could earn up to six teams.
So let the debate begin about whether Kentucky would take Air Force to the woodshed or if Syracuse would light up the scoreboard against Bucknell. It’s a system that the NCAA committee sticks bye and you better get used to it!
Don't forget to include Michigan on that list. After their annual beatdown little brother got last night from MSU it is very clear that Michigan is not a tournament caliber teams. They get beatdown routinely on the road and have no marquee wins on their tournament resume outside a horribly officiated game in Ann Arbor against the Spartans where they shot almost 30 more FTs than MSU and only won by 5. It's clear that little brother is poised for another big NIT run this year.
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