The USC Trojans have necessarily had to monitor bubble results across the country. Most outcomes have flowed in USC’s direction. There are still a few bubble teams on the board, but the pool is shrinking.
What matters a lot in the next 24 to 48 hours is for conference tournaments to produce champions who were already headed to the NCAA Tournament. If conference tournament champions are not good enough to be at-large teams, that means conferences are adding extra bids to the NCAA Tournament, which reduces the size of the bubble and makes life harder for teams such as USC.
This is something we need to focus on for the next two days.
Thursday, a possible “bid thief” — a team with no at-large chances which can make the NCAA field by winning its conference tournament — was knocked off.
Villanova, a team which was injury-riddled in the first half of the season but had become much healthier and better in recent weeks, was viewed as a real threat to win the Big East Tournament and steal an NCAA bid. That’s the kind of team bubble teams (USC) need to lose this week.
Thursday, the Wildcats lost. Creighton defeated them in the Big East quarterfinals.
The Big East has four guaranteed NCAA at-large teams — Connecticut, Marquette, Xavier, and Creighton — in the semifinals. There is no team which can add to the Big East’s collection of NCAA Tournament teams. The bubble will not shrink at the Big East Tournament. That’s the scenario USC wants and needs.
Where else should USC look for situations in which teams can get automatic bids and shrink the bubble? Start in the Pac-12 Tournament, where Oregon could get an automatic bid if it wins two more games.
USC needs UCLA to put an end to the Oregon run in the Pac-12 semifinals on Friday.
Consult our bubble guide for more details.
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