NCAA basketball: Bubble implications of the past weekend’s games

With much of college basketball’s attention focused on March Madness quickly approaching, what did this weekend’s results mean for teams on the bubble?

It was a loaded slate of games this weekend in college basketball, especially for teams trying to make a statement to the committee just ahead of the NCAA tournament. With so many schools still trying to make their case to sneak in to the field of 68, recent action has been not only extremely entertaining for fans, it has been revealing.

A lot of shifting has happened recently that bracketologists have paid close attention to, and the bubble now looks much different from it did just several days ago.

Much of what makes these last couple of weeks of regular season play important is what teams who have already locked up tournament spots do just prior to the most important stretch of their seasons. Momentum is significant in college basketball, so every team wants to get hot right around this time of year.

But for some teams, not only is building momentum incentive to lay it all on the line these last two weeks, it is truly do or die. Their tournament lives depend on if they can build their resumes well enough to convince the committee they are worthy. And sometimes, sneaking into the tournament is just enough of a boost for a team to make a deep run. VCU and Dayton are recent examples of this occurrence.

The bubble looks much different now than it did before this past weekend began, so let’s get right into it. Five teams especially have had their fortunes changed dramatically by this past weekend’s results, for better or for worse.