It’s March. Has your bubble burst yet?
For some, the bubble is still a cloud in the sky dangling by a precarious thread.
It won’t take much — a raindrop, a tack, a Kentucky — and it’ll blow up in your face. Just clean yourself up and settle in for some real neat NIT games.
College basketball teams on the fringe of this month’s NCAA Tournament are many, but below are five interesting teams to watch as the season winds down and Championship Week grinds toward Selection Sunday on March 16.
• Florida (60 RPI, 21-8 overall, 8-6 SEC): Can you believe the two-time defending champions won’t dance this year?
Why not?
The Gators lost all five starters. They’re lucky they’re even finding the gym.
Their lone quality win is over Vanderbilt, and they lost to Florida State at home. They’ve lost five of eight. However, they get Tennessee at home tonight and visit Kentucky on Sunday. A winning SEC mark, including a win over the Volunteers, should earn a berth.
• Ohio State (56 RPI, 18-12, 9-8 Big Ten): At least Florida’s misery has company. The team it beat for last year’s national title is also scrambling. The NBA-depleted Buckeyes were falling apart until Tuesday’s win over Purdue. Still, they’re 1-9 against teams with a top-50 RPI and have lost four of five. It may come down to Sunday against No. 14 Michigan State.
• Maryland (64 RPI, 18-12, 8-7 ACC): It has bad losses to American and Boston College, but it visits Virginia (10th in the ACC) — and a winning mark in the ACC will go a long way with the selection committee. The ACC has the top RPI in the country. Don’t ask us why.
• Arizona (24 RPI, 17-12, 7-9 Pac-10): The Wildcats are already in, according to many brackets, but shouldn’t be. The high RPI and top-ranked schedule belie six losses in eight games and a potential losing conference mark. Imagine this: They split this weekend in Oregon, finish 8-10, and the NCAA picks them ahead of Arizona State and Oregon, both 9-9 teams that swept Arizona.
• South Alabama (29 RPI, 23-5, 16-2 Sun Belt): We’ll see what the NCAA thinks of the Sun Belt, ranked 15th out of 32 leagues, if the Jaguars can’t beat Western Kentucky a third time for the league tourney title. They beat Mississippi State and took Vanderbilt to two overtimes, but they’d better hope there aren’t upsets in other league tourney title games.
