Updated Sunday morning at 8:00 am PT. Bubble Math: 1) A team is only a “lock” if its chance of making the NCAA Tournament as an at-large is better than 95%. I really don’t like moving teams out of “lock” status because they’ve lost four games in a row. 2) 31 teams earn automatic bids [...]

California won its first Pac-10 title in 50 years over the weekend by sweeping the Arizona schools at Haas Pavilion.  Congratulations to Mike Montgomery and all of the players.  Ordinarily that feat would mean a top-four seed, and with this year’s host sites, a first-round placement in San Jose. Not this year, however.  The Pac-10 [...]

Let’s play a word game: Barring (fill in the blank), St. Mary’s will be headed back to the NCAA Tournament in 2009. Answer: An injury to Patrick Mills. St. Mary’s was rolling along as a nationally ranked team, 18-1, and in position for its second-consecutive NCAA Tournament berth even without the West Coast Conference’s automatic [...]

Here’s the article I’ll be updating throughout Championship Week to reflect the ever-changing landscape in BubbleLand. I would encourage BracketNation to post its thoughts on teams’ chances on making the NCAA Tournament, as well as seeding discussion, in the comments below. Updated Saturday March 15, 1:00 PT The biggest stories on The Bubble…where to begin? [...]

First, the recap: Big Ten: Ohio State. The Big Ten’s weekly entrant in this column is one loss away from dropping out of the bracket. OSU is an abysmal 1-8 against the RPI Top 50. Fortunately, or unfortunately, for them they still have three opportunities to improve that record: @Indiana, H-Purdue, and H-Michigan State in [...]

After a one-week hiatus, we’re back with the weekly Bubble Watch. A quick rundown of the teams featured last time around: Big 10: Indiana Hoosiers. IU is now officially a lock.  After two wins over Big Ten leaders Purdue and Michigan State, Indiana will be in the Tournament.  The bigger question is whether Kelvin Sampson [...]

First, a review of last week’s Bubble teams: Big Ten – Ohio State Buckeyes. Ugh. Bucks had a chance to solidify their profile last week, but lost at a scrappy Iowa. We’re now starting the all-important “Last 10 games,” and as bad as the Big Ten is this year, Ohio State’s schedule is pretty rough. [...]

First, an update on the teams featured in this space last week: Big Ten – Purdue Boilermakers. Perhaps no team answered the bell last week as well as the Boilers. Purdue is now 6-1 in the Big Ten and 3-2 against the RPI top 50 after defeating Penn State and Wisconsin.  Avoiding a trap game [...]

In my opinion, it’s still WAY too early to be talking about locks and bubbles, but I know fans are always eager to talk about how the bracket is shaping up at this point in the season. With that in mind, here are a few synopses of what are looking like “controversial” teams on Selection [...]

Here’s a rundown of every team on the bubble and what it needs to do to (virtually) guarantee an NCAA Tournament bid. Teams are listed in order of likelihood to receive an at-large. Those listed as “Win Tournament” still have a chance at receiving an at-large bid with a loss in the final, but it’s [...]