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March Madness: Four Teams Looking to Steal NCAA Tournament Bids

By Chris Godfrey

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The NCAA Tournament and its madness are imminent.  With that are teams trying to claw and fight their to share in the excitement of the big dance, no matter who is in their way.

With March Madness quickly approaching, talk of bubble teams and at-large bids is dominating the college basketball landscape. Teams are tallying big victories around the country, hoping to solidify their body of work in time for Selection Sunday.

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In total, the NCAA Tournament offers 36 at-large bids to deserving teams that did not win their conference tournament (or the regular season title in the Ivy League). For teams on the cusp of an invitation, sweating out the final days before Selection Sunday becomes especially tumultuous when a team threatens to “steal” an at-large bid from the pool of bubble teams by winning a conference tournament.

The most notable of these bid thefts took place at the 2008 SEC Tournament. Georgia entered the tournament after finishing tied for last place in the SEC, but on the strength of a heroic weekend from Sundiata Gaines, the Bulldogs rallied through the tournament and won the SEC’s automatic bid. Georgia, a team with no NCAA Tournament hopes at the start of the weekend, robbed a bubble team of an at-large spot by pushing a tournament lock into the at-large pool. Virginia Tech, a team that won 10 games in the ACC that year (and 19 games overall), was the team that likely lost their spot due to Georgia’s unexpected qualification.

This year, there are more than a few teams capable of shrinking the bubble in the final weeks of the season. If your favorite team is currently in danger of missing the dance, these are the teams you will see in your nightmares during early March. The chance for an at-large bid may have bypassed them, but these teams believe they have a chance to steal a bid by winning their conference tournament at the expense of the tournament’s bubble.

Evansville (Missouri Valley)

The Missouri Valley is the conference that the entire bubble will be focused on next month. Teams in “First Four” territory will be hoping for a tamed version of Arch Madness in St. Louis this year. Anything but a “Wichita State/Northern Iowa: Part Three” will make the bubble very volatile. One of the teams that can crash the party and win the Valley is Evansville. The Aces (19-9, 9-7) haven’t been very competitive against Wichita State this year, but they played Northern Iowa within three points earlier this season. An upset of the Shockers in the semifinals could lead to a winnable final game against Northern Iowa.

Connecticut (American)

The UConn Huskies have made a habit of winning tournaments from out of nowhere. Both Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier have pulled it off by bringing national championships to Storrs. A similarly herculean effort from Ryan Boatright will be necessary to even get the defending champs into the field of 68. The good news for the Huskies is that the American conference is more wide open than any in the country. Seeing the Huskies (15-11, 8-6) in the finals of their conference tournament wouldn’t necessarily even be a surprise, but it will definitely have hearts beating fast on the bubble.

Seton Hall (Big East)

The Pirates are admittedly in an absolute tailspin. An injury to their studly freshman Isaiah Whitehead has sent them from the ranks of the top 25  to the bottom of the Big East. More recently, Sterling Gibbs‘ ground and pound forearm to Villanova guard Ryan Arcidiacono‘s skull seemingly solidified this team’s status as a group that has checked out for the season. In between those two incidents, veteran guard Jaren Sina simply walked away from the team. Nothing about Seton Hall (15-12, 5-10) looks appealing at the moment, but remember that earlier in the season (with Gibbs and Whitehead healthy and on the same page), this team beat Villanova. It’s a feat that they will have to duplicate if they want to shock the Garden crowd and win the Big East Tournament. If the Pirates pull it together, the bubble may have reason to be nervous.

Utah State (Mountain West)

The Mountain West has four schools competing for at-large invitation to the Big Dance, but a new addition to the conference could be looking to play spoiler in the conference tournament. The USU Aggies are no stranger to winning conference tournaments, but they accomplished that feat previously in the WAC. Now in the balanced and deep Mountain West, the Aggies have fallen to the middle of the pack (16-10, 9-5). However, with head coach Stu Morrill at the helm, the entire conference knows that the Aggies will be a tough out in postseason play. Morrill’s squad has already beaten Boise State and Wyoming in conference play, and they’ll finish the season at home against Colorado State (their game at San Diego State was a 20-point loss). There’s plenty of reason to believe Utah State could be around at the end of the Mountain West tournament, and their presence means trouble on the bubble.

Next: Virginia Cavaliers: London Perrantes day-to-day with broken nose

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