If you are a fan of a particular college basketball team fretting that your team is on the proverbial NCAA Tournament bubble, you should know two things by now:
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There is nothing figurative about being in this position. The pressure is all too real.
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Your team’s presence on the bubble is something to which fans of such programs as Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Oregon State aspire. So it’s not all bad.
Life on the bubble may be hell — but at least your team is alive. Of course your weekend will not be as chipper as those playing for league championships or NCAA seeding. It will be interesting, though.
MORE: Projecting the bracket for the 2024 NCAA tournament
Best Bubble Game of Saturday:
Texas A&M at Tennessee, 8 p.m., ESPN
When these teams met not long ago in College Station, the Aggies issued a loud declaration that they belong somewhere near the middle of the NCAA field. At worst. And since then they’ve done seemingly everything they can to suggest they’d rather not play in March Madness.
They’re now excluded from a dozen of the 106 projected brackets at BracketMatrix.com, and they’re fortunate to be seeded as high as a consensus No. 10.
Having suffered the humiliation they did in that first game, the UT Volunteers might be plenty happy to help A&M toward an early off-season.
Others to monitor (bubble team in bold):
Duke at Wake Forest, 2 p.m., ESPN
Iowa at Illinois, 2:15 p.m., Big Ten Network
Cincinnati at TCU, 3 p.m., ESPN plus
South Carolina at Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m., SEC Network
Oregon at California, 7 p.m., Pac-12 Networks
Mississippi State at LSU, 8:30 p.m., SEC Network
Villanova at Connecticut, 8 p.m., Fox
MORE: DeCourcy's Dozen has UConn on top
Best bubble game of Sunday:
Creighton at St. John’s, noon, CBS.
A lot of people were critical of Rick Pitino for how he handled his press conference after losing a bubble game against rival Seton Hall.
He was rough enough on his players and staff to be compelled to do a one-on-one interview with the New York Post and acknowledge he bore some responsibility for this season’s disappointing decline.
But Pitino rarely does anything without a calculated effect, and the Red Storm did respond with a greater sense of urgency in a comfortable midweek victory over Georgetown. One gets the sense this game against one of the Big East’s top teams is an all-or-nothing proposition for St. John’s.
Others to monitor:
Minnesota at Nebraska, 6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network
Pure Bubble Games:
The beauty of a pure bubble game is that both teams involved find themselves in the similar circumstance. Neither can afford to lose, nor can they afford the opponent to win. There’s nothing quite like it in any other sport.
Saturday:
Virginia Tech at Pitt, 5:30 p.m., The CW
Butler at Seton Hall, 8:30 p.m., FS2
Utah at Colorado, 8:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks