How many bubble teams want to be in the NCAA Tournament? Sure, they all say they want to, so maybe that question should be amended: how many bubble teams want to earn their way into the NCAA Tournament?
If Wednesday is any indication, the answer may appear to be “not many”. And we have one more really good argument for not further expanding the NCAA Tournament (which was really just fine at 64, even 65, teams to begin with).
This is the subject that dominated a day that included just one championship game, and not exactly a thriller – Bucknell blew out Colgate 83-54 to win the Patriot League for the second straight year, and the 29-point margin is the largest in league history for the championship game.
As has been the case for a number of years now, the bubble this year is really soft – there are lots of teams with so little apparent separation, and none of them strike you as serious threats to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. On Wednesday, we saw bubble team after bubble team lose, although there was the occasional game on the slate that had two bubble teams matched up.
The ACC Tournament had this in spades. Florida State lost to Louisville 82-74 to start the day, and while the Seminoles have a better resume than many – seven top 50 wins, three of them in the top 25, and six Quadrant 1 wins, along with only one sub-100 loss – losing this early in the conference tournament is never helpful. Right after that, Boston College beat NC State, which has some thinking the Wolfpack may sweat it out on Sunday. While that might be so, the Wolfpack have four top 25 wins, three other top 50 wins and five Quadrant 1 wins along with two sub-100 losses away from Raleigh, they have a pretty good resume. Then to close the day out, North Carolina handled Syracuse 78-59, which at first glance would appear to be a fatal blow to any at-large hopes the Orange had left.
Not long after that, Colorado beat Arizona State 97-85 in the Pac-12 Tournament. As a result, the Sun Devils, once thought to be a mortal lock given their great non-conference run, look very questionable. Going 8-10 in a down year in the Pac-12 certainly doesn’t help, and losing in the first round of the conference tournament doesn’t, either.
In the Big 12, Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma 71-60. The Sooners’ struggles since February began are well-documented, but the reality is they have five top 25 wins and an additional Quadrant 1 win over USC, and the worst loss came at Iowa State as their only sub-100 loss. In other words, the Sooners in theory have a resume that should have them in, but losing early in the conference tournament is not a plus. The Cowboys, meanwhile, have been under the radar but actually have a pretty good resume. If they beat Kansas on Thursday – they already beat the Jayhawks twice in the regular season – they will be more than just in the conversation.
One of the few exceptions was Notre Dame, who pulled out a 71-65 win over Virginia Tech in the one ACC Tournament game not mentioned earlier. With all the bubble teams that lost early in their conference tournaments, maybe the Fighting Irish have as good a case to be in the field as anybody. And if you still consider Georgia a bubble team, well, the Bulldogs kept their remote hopes alive with a 78-62 win over Vanderbilt, which gets them a shot at Missouri on Thursday in what will essentially be a road game.
Conference Tournament Roundup
In other action on the busy day:
Atlantic 10: In first round action, UMass edged La Salle 69-67, then George Washington beat Fordham 78-72.
Big East: St. John’s used a big second half to knock off Georgetown 88-77, then DePaul had a chance late against Marquette, getting a turnover and then a wide open three-point attempt that front-rimmed, as Marquette survived 72-69.
Conference USA: Southern Miss edged Florida International 69-68, UT San Antonio beat UTEP 71-58, Louisiana Tech beat North Texas 68-62, and UAB made a halftime lead stand up in an 83-72 win over Florida Atlantic.
MEAC: Top seed Hampton edged Florida A&M 75-71, then Morgan State upset Bethune-Cookman 78-77 on two late free throws.
Mountain West: UNLV beat Air Force 97-90 behind a big game from Brandon McCoy (23 points, 12 rebounds), Utah State beat Colorado State 76-65, and Wyoming beat San Jose State 74-61.
Pac-12: Stanford beat arch-rival Cal 76-58 in a rubber game between the two after the road team won both regular season meetings. Oregon State sent Washington off to the NIT with a 69-66 overtime win and Oregon survived Washington State 64-62 in overtime.
SEC: South Carolina edged Ole Miss 85-84 in the other game in St. Louis on the night.
Southland: New Orleans made a 14-point halftime lead stand up as they beat Texas A&M-CC 83-76, then Central Arkansas got their first Southland Conference Tournament win by beating Lamar 67-57.
Sun Belt: Texas State beat Coastal Carolina 73-66, then Appalachian State blew out Little Rock 93-64, Troy beat South Alabama 69-62 and UL Monroe handled Arkansas State 76-54.
Side Dishes
The aforementioned Colorado-Arizona State game did not have a good ending for Colorado head coach Tad Boyle. After an alley oop in the closing seconds led to a scuffle as Arizona State took exception to it – you could see that the Sun Devils were not playing defense, figuring the Buffs were going to just run out the clock – Boyle came out to try to help prevent a fight, and he told ESPN that he tore a calf muscle. He will continue to coach and was in a walking boot after the game.
Missouri will get a boost on Thursday, as Michael Porter Jr. will return to action after missing most of the season due to a spinal injury. The highly-touted freshman played just two minutes in the season opener before coming out and then needing surgery, and most thought he would not play again. He will return on Friday to a team that has already been better than expected considering the biggest reason much was expected of this team had to do with Porter.
The story at Cal State Northridge has taken quite a turn. First, we learned that a day after Reggie Theus was let go, athletic director Brandon Martin was fired. Later, we found out why: ESPN.com reported that the two got into a verbal altercation and almost came to blows, but didn’t, and Theus filed a battery complain to campus police. This will make the head coaching job harder to fill anytime soon.
San Diego will be looking for a new head coach as Lamont Smith resigned late Wednesday night. An alum of the school, things had been looking up with the program improving before he got arrested at Oakland International Airport less than two weeks ago on allegations of domestic violence. He will not face charges, but he is out of a job.
Breaking as we went to press is news from ESPN that Pittsburgh has fired Kevin Stallings after just two seasons on the job. Stallings is a good coach and good man but never seemed like a great fit at the school, and he was hired by former athletic director Scott Barnes. The Panthers were already trending downward ever since they left the Big East for the ACC, a football-driven move (like pretty much every such move), but this year the bottom fell out as the inexperienced Panthers did not win a single ACC game en route to an 8-24 overall mark. You can follow all of the coaching changes right here on Hoopville.
Tonight’s Menu
The busiest day of the week is here, as a number of tournaments have four games on tap with most being quarterfinal matchups.
- In the ACC quarterfinals, No. 9 Louisville takes on No. 1 Virginia (noon), then No. 12 Boston College tries to continue their surprise run against No. 4 Clemson (2:30 p.m.) In the evening session, No. 10 Notre Dame takes on No. 2 Duke (7 p.m.), then takes on No. 3 Miami (9:30 p.m.)
- In Orlando, first round action in the American Athletic Conference Tournament begins with SMU taking on UConn (noon), then South Florida takes on Memphis (2:30 p..m.) to close the afternoon session. In the evening, Tulane takes on Temple (7 p.m.) and East Carolina plays UCF (9:30 p.m.)
- Second round action in the Atlantic 10 Tournament starts with Dayton taking on VCU (noon), then UMass battles George Mason (2:30 p.m.) to close the afternoon session. The night session starts with Duquesne taking on Richmond (6 p.m.) and finishes with George Washington taking on Saint Louis (8:30 p.m.)
- Quarterfinal action in the Big 12 Tournament starts with TCU taking on Kansas State (12:30 p.m.), then Oklahoma State tries to beat Kansas for a third time (3 p.m.) before Texas takes on Texas Tech (7 p.m.) and Baylor battles West Virginia (9:30 p.m.)
- The Big East quarterfinals start with St. John’s taking on Xavier (noon), then Providence takes on Creighton (2:30 p.m.), Marquette plays Villanova (7 p.m.) and Butler takes on Seton Hall (9:30 p.m.)
- The quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament in Reno start with North Dakota taking on Montana (3 p.m.), followed by Northern Colorado battling Weber State (5:30 p.m.), Southern Utah taking on Idaho (8:30 p.m.) and Portland State battling Eastern Washington (11 p.m.)
- In the Big West Tournament, quarterfinal action has UC Riverside taking on regular season champion UC Davis (3 p.m.), Long Beach State battling Cal State Fullerton (5:30 p.m.), Hawaii taking on UC Irvine (9 p.m.) and Cal Poly taking on UC Santa Barbara (11:30 p.m.)
- Conference USA has quarterfinal action, with Southern Miss taking on Middle Tennessee (7 p.m.) and UT San Antonio battling Marshall (7:30 p.m.) early, then Louisiana Tech takes on Old Dominion (9:30 p.m.) and UAB plays Western Kentucky (10 p.m.)
- The MAC Tournament starts the quarterfinal round with Central Michigan taking on Buffalo (noon), then Kent State taking on Ball State (2:30 p.m.) before the evening session with Miami (Ohio) taking Toledo (6:30 p.m.) and Akron battling Eastern Michigan (9 p.m.)
- In the MEAC Tournament, the second set of quarterfinals starts with NC Central taking on Savannah State (6 p.m.) and concludes with Norfolk State taking on North Carolina A&T (8:30 p.m.)
- In the Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals, UNLV battles in-state rival Nevada (3 p.m.), San Diego State takes on Fresno State (5:30 p.m.), Utah State plays Boise State (9 p.m.)
- Quarterfinal action in the Pac-12 Tournament gets going with Colorado taking on Arizona (3 p.m.), then Stanford takes on UCLA (5:30 p.m.) to close out the afternoon. At night, Oregon State plays USC (9 p.m.) and Oregon takes on Utah (11:30 p.m.)
- In the SEC Tournament second round, No. 9 Alabama takes on No. 8 Texas A&M (1 p.m.), then No. 12 Georgia takes on No. 5 Missouri (3:30 p.m.) In the evening session, No. 10 LSU takes on No. 7 Mississippi State (7 p.m.) and South Carolina takes on Arkansas (9:30 p.m.)
- Second round action in the Southland Conference Tournament has New Orleans taking on Sam Houston State (6 p.m.) and Central Arkansas taking on Stephen F. Austin (8:30 p.m.)
- The WAC Tournament has its quarterfinals, with UMKC taking on Grand Canyon (3 p.m.), CSU Bakersfield taking on Utah Valley (5:30 p.m.), Chicago State playing New Mexico State (9 p.m.) and UT Rio Grand Valley taking on Seattle (11:30 p.m.)
