Bubble Watch

AS OF MARCH 4, 2010

Bubble Breakdown and Comparison

Welcome back to the Bubble Watch. As we stated a couple of weeks ago, it will look at every team in the at-large mix hoping to grab one of the last spots for the NCAA Tournament. With just a few days left in the regular season in the major conferences, it seems that no bubble teams want an at-large bid to the Big Dance. Could that open up a spot for a potential sleeper? We’ll have to wait and see. According to the numbers, there are 10 bids still up for grabs, with 15 teams legitimately vying for them:

Locks: 29


Automatic bids from the other conferences: 21

50 Locks Overall

• ACC (3): Duke, Maryland, Clemson
  
• Big East (5): Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Georgetown
  
• Big Ten (4): Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin
  
• Big 12 (6): Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, Baylor, Texas A&M, Missouri
  
• Pac-10 (1): California
  
• SEC (3): Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee
  
• Atlantic-10 (3): Temple, Richmond, Xavier
  
• Conference-USA (1): UTEP
  
• Mountain West (2): BYU, New Mexico
  
• West Coast (1): Gonzaga
  

One-Bid Conferences (21): America East (Stony Brook); Atlantic Sun (Jacksonville); Big Sky (Weber State); Big South (Coastal Carolina); Big West (UC Santa Barbara); Colonial (Old Dominion); Horizon (Butler); Ivy (Cornell); MAC (Kent State); MAAC (Siena); MEAC (Morgan State); Missouri Valley (Northern Iowa); Northeast (Robert Morris); Ohio Valley (Murray State); Patriot (Lehigh); Southern (Charleston); Southland (Sam Houston State); Summit (Oakland); Sun Belt (North Texas); SWAC (Jackson State); WAC (Utah State)

Teams that need to keep winning to avoid the bubble – these bids are not up for grabs yet (5): Wake Forest, Florida State, Marquette, Oklahoma State, UNLV

Teams that have work to do to even gain bubble consideration: Arizona State, Washington, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Seton Hall, South Florida, Charlotte, Saint Louis, Wichita State, VCU

Note: California, Utah State, UTEP, Siena, Cornell, Northern Iowa and Old Dominion are not included, as they are the current leaders in their respective conferences.

Rankings of the 15 Bubble Teams (Choose 10)

• 1. Georgia Tech
  
• 2. Louisville
  
• 3. Florida
  
• 4. Notre Dame
  
• 5. Virginia Tech
  
• 6. Illinois
  
• 7. Connecticut
  
• 8. Saint Mary’s
  
• 9. San Diego State
  
• 10. Dayton
  
• 11. UAB
  
• 12. Rhode Island
  
• 13. Mississippi
  
• 14. Memphis
  
• 15. Mississippi State