What is with all the bubble home teams blowing huge leads this weekend? Syracuse, St Joe’s and Maryland all blew second half leads which could have greatly improved their chances. Now, all three face must-win games to end the regular season.
Clemson, Miss St and Pitt moved into the tourney with road wins against fellow bubble teams, while Ohio St, Kent St, Texas A&M and Houston all took major hits with losses.
Conference tournaments start on Tuesday and you can bet those teams unsure of their future will be rooting for all the #1 seeds to advance. Also, congratulations to the Ivy League champion Cornell Big Red on being the first team into the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
There are 31 conference winners that receive automatic bids and 34 At-Large berths available. 20 conferences will send one team, while 11 will/could send multiple teams. Here is the breakdown of those conferences:
A10
Locks 1: Xavier
Bubble 3: UMASS, Dayton, St Joe’s
--UMASS and Dayton both picked up needed road wins to stay on the bubble. St Joe’s suffered their second consecutive home loss and now must beat X on Thursday and win at Dayton to end the season to have a legitimate claim.
ACC
Locks 3: Duke, North Carolina, Clemson
Bubble 3: Miami, Virginia Tech, Maryland
--Clemson’s comeback at Maryland put the Tigers safely in the field. Maryland now faces a must win at Virginia to end the season. VT has won three straight and needs to take care of business this week against Wake to stay in the hunt.
Big East
Locks 6: UCONN, Georgetown, Marquette, Notre Dame, Louisville, Pitt
Bubble 3: West Virginia, Villanova, Syracuse
--Syracuse’s home collapse basically summed up their season and an NIT berth barring a monster run in the BE tournament. Seton Hall is also NIT bound after their choke-job at St. Johns. WVU still can’t win away from Morgantown and Nova needs to finish strong to have a chance.
Big 10
Locks 4: Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan St
Bubble 0:
--OSU is done as they lost to Minnesota by double digits. The Big Ten sends four.
Big 12
Locks 2: Kansas, Texas
Bubble 4: Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas St, Texas A&M
--Baylor and Oklahoma both won, improving their status. Kansas St has now lost four straight and needs to win both remaining regular season games to stay in contention. A&M is extremely inconsistent, though can turn it around with wins at Baylor and at UMASS to end the season.
Conference USA
Locks 1: Memphis
Bubble 2: UAB, Houston
--UAB won keeping them square on the bubble. Houston lost to a horrible East Carolina team and now will most likely be on the outside looking in come Selection Sunday.
Missouri Valley
Locks 1: Drake
Bubble 3: Illinois St, Southern Illinois, Creighton
--Illinois St picked up a huge road win at Southern Illinois on Saturday and is the clear cut #2 team out of the MVC. SIU and Creighton stay in limbo because the bubble is so weak this year.
Mountain West
Locks 0:
Bubble 3: BYU, UNLV, New Mexico
--New Mexico has to win at UNLV on Tuesday to stay in contention. If BYU wins the Regular Season title this week, they will move into lock status.
Pac 10
Locks 3: Stanford, UCLA, Washington St
Bubble 3: USC, Arizona St, Arizona
--If USC and Arizona St win one more game, they will both be locks. Arizona blew a chance to lock up a bid by losing to UCLA, but probably only needs one more in the regular season and one in the tourney to secure a bid.
SEC
Locks 3: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi St
Bubble 4: Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss
--Miss St moves in after their road victory on Saturday clinched the SEC West. Arkansas picked up a monster win against Vandy and Ole Miss stayed alive by beating Alabama. Kentucky looked like a tournament team hanging with UT on Sunday, but close losses can only take you so far.
WCC
Locks 2: St Mary’s, Gonzaga
Bubble 0:
--The Zags won the rematch on Saturday and it seems the WCC will be a two-bid league.
Other At-large Candidates
Locks 1: Butler
Bubble 4: Davidson, South Alabama, VCU, Kent St
--Davidson, South Alabama and VCU all stayed the course and took care of business on Saturday. Kent lost and needs to finish the regular season strong just in case the Flashes don’t win the MAC tournament.
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