Life on the bubble is stressful for everyone. Players have the added pressure of winning enough games to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, coupled with not losing to bad teams to remove them from the bubble and keep them out of the NCAA tournament entirely. February is when everything gets magnified. The games get tighter and the opportunities are less. Tuesday night, there was a huge bubble game in Morgantown, West Virginia, between the BYU Cougars and West Virginia Mountaineers.
The BYU Cougars entered the game as one of the last four teams in the tournament and desperately needed a road win against another tournament team. The resume for the Cougars was lacking as they had only beaten Baylor, but hadn’t beaten anyone else of note the rest of the season. BYU was still on the bubble due to its strength of schedule and its good metrics because of the Big 12 conference and its ability to avoid bad losses. Even without the bad losses, the Cougars still had to beat someone, and they did just that when they went into Morgantown and beat West Virginia.
BYU entered play with one win against a team currently in the projected field. They now have two wins against the field with a showdown with Kansas coming up next week. BYU played Cougar basketball in the game against the Mountaineers; they played fast, made a ton of threes, especially in the second half, and were able to get inside for easy baskets. The Cougars needed a huge performance and they got one.
BYU would have fallen out of the tournament bracket had they lost and it would have been an uphill climb for them at that point given that they don’t have much left on their schedule that will move the needle. The Cougars would have needed to beat Kansas and go on a run in the Big 12 tournament to make the field had they lost to West Virginia.
BYU very well could beat Kansas now, which would help them in seeding, If they hold serve at home for the rest of the season, they will avoid the bad losses that bubble teams can not take. BYU will have a happy flight home knowing they picked up a huge win and,, at least for now, willget to fight another day on the bubble.