If you follow college basketball fairly closely and remember NCAA Tournament snubs or surprise inclusions on Selection Sundays from the past, you will understand the point we are about to make.
On our most recent USC men’s basketball podcast, producer and co-host Ian Hest made the specific point that if USC is involved in a 50-50 bubble debate with either North Carolina or Kentucky — two other teams which are right on the middle of the bubble — the Trojans probably won’t get the benefit of the doubt.
Remember that in 2015, UCLA had what was — for most analysts — an NIT-level resume. The Bruins should not have been selected for the NCAA Tournament. Yet, they were. Three years later, in 2018, USC finished second in the Pac-12 and then made the Pac-12 Tournament championship game. The Trojans had a top-40 RPI rating. They were not selected.
If a blue-blood school such as North Carolina or Kentucky is on the middle of the bubble on Selection Sunday, and USC is right there in the same pool of bubble teams with 50-50 odds, the Trojans are not likely to get in over Carolina or Big Blue. They will therefore need to be noticeably better than UNC or Kentucky if they want to make the field.
Here is the full podcast below:
[mm-video type=video id=01gs8g3n57hhe1v1v9kk playlist_id=none player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gs8g3n57hhe1v1v9kk/01gs8g3n57hhe1v1v9kk-29d54df3eef2af86ce1182bd1da0d248.jpg]
[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=696090378]