For bubble teams throughout college basketball, the two weeks of championship week are long and very strenuous.
Not only do bubbles teams have to worry about winning the difficult and pressure filled games in front of them, but they also have to hope that the teams who are locks to make the NCAA tournament win their conference tournaments. If the locks secure the automatic bid from their conference, other teams who wouldn't have made the NCAA tournament without winning their conference title aren't stealing automatic selections and shrinking the size of the bubbles by stealing bids.
For example, in 2010 Utah St. was a lock to make the tourney, but New Mexico St. won the WAC conference tournament. Therefore, the conference got two bids to the NCAA tournament and stole a bid from another bubble team.
That same year, UTEP was going to the big dance no matter how far they advanced in the Conference USA tournament. Therefore, when Houston beat the Miners in the conference title game, the Cougars stole a bid from another bubble team, as the conference received two bids to the dance.
Thus, teams like Illinois and Virginia Tech, who might have made the tournament if Utah St. and UTEP had won their conference tournaments, were left on the outside looking in because their were two less spots available in the big dance because of the bid stealers.
Aside from their own games of course, all the eyes of the bubbles teams and especially their fans, were on the Ohio Valley Conference Finals in Nashville, Tennessee at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
The Murray St. Racers have been one of the darlings of college basketball all season long. The Ohio Valley regular season champs began the season 23-0 with victories over non-conference tournament bound teams like Southern Miss and Memphis on the road. Although the Racers fell at home to Tennessee St. 72-68, all doubt of them not receiving an at-large selection were squashed when they manhandled a very quality Saint Mary's team, who is likely going to be a 6 or 7 seed in the tournament, in BrackBusters 65-51 at home.
Therefore, with Murray St. 29-1 coming into the Ohio Valley Conference finals against Tennessee St., they were a lock for the NCAA tournament. The Racers were still playing for a lot however. They were looking to finish the regular season in the top 10 of both polls, win their 15th Ohio Valley conference tournament and 3rd consecutive, and get a 5 or 6 seed in the big dance.
Despite this, if the Racers lost, they were still secured that they were going to the tournament, but if Tennessee St. got the victory, they would be stealing a bid from a bubble team. The Tigers were 20-11 coming into the OVC title game and were not going to receive a bid unless they won the conference tourney championship game.
Bubble teams, coaches, and fans had to sweat out a tight OVC final and pray that the Racers would come out victorious.
In the first half, neither team was able to create any sort of separation, as the biggest lead of the half was 3 points. The teams exchanged buckets for most of the half and there were 8 lead changes. The Racers led by just two points at half but a concern was that they weren't getting any scoring from players other than guards Donte Poole and Isaiah Canaan. Aside from Poole and Canaan, the rest of the Murray St. team had just 11 points in the first half.
While most fans would have expected the Racers to make some runs in the second half, the Tigers were the team that almost pulled away. They came out of halftime in the first 5 minutes on a 11-4 run and went ahead 38-31. After Murray St. pulled the game back, Tennessee St. went on another run. After trailing 43-42 with 8:06 remaining, the Tigers went on another impressive 8-0 run to take the lead 50-43 with just 5:38 remaining.
Although things looked gleam for bubbles teams around the country, Murray St. would give them a sigh of relief. The Racers didn't allow Tennessee St. to score in the final 3:48 of the game and were able to escape with a 54-52 victory.
With 40 seconds left, Patrick Miller had a costly turnover for the Tigers. He picked up his dribble and got trapped in the corner and when he tried to force a pass to Robert Covington who was coming off of a screen, he threw an errant pass and the ball went into the backcourt and out of bounds. With 12 seconds left, Tennessee St. double teamed Isaiah Canaan and wouldn't let the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and 19 point per game scorer take the final shot. He dished the ball off to Jewuan Long, who drove into the lane and banked in a floater for his second field goal of the entire game. The Tigers had one last chance, but to the pleasure of bubble teams throughout the country, Robert Covington missed a desperation three as time expired.
Although bubble teams escaped with a "victory" with Murray State's win over Tennessee St., the work for them has only begun. Not only do they have to focus and win critical games down the stretch but they also have to hope that some other conference tournaments go their way.
Bubble teams are now going to be very intrigued with the outcome of the Missouri Conference finals at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. If Wichita St. had beaten Illinois St. in the semifinals, the MVC championship game would only have been for seeding in the NCAA tournament. However, the Red Birds pulled off the major upset and knocked off the Shockers and dealt them their first loss since January.
Now, they will take on Creighton, who like Wichita St., is going to be in the NCAA tournament, as they are 27-5 with wins over UAB on the road, San Diego St. on the road, Northwestern, Wichita St, on the road, and Long Beach St. Illinois St. is not going to make the tournament unless they pull off another major upset and stun the Bluejays to win their first conference tourney crown since 1998. With a Red Birds win, the bubble field would shrink and cause a lot of stress teams like South Florida, Texas, Colorado St., Northwestern, Xavier, and VCU.
Since South Florida finished 6th in the Big East, they will receive a first round bye in the Big East tournament. They also avoided having to play tournament bound teams like UConn and Seton Hall in the second round unlike the 7th seeded Louisville Cardinals, who could play Seton Hall, and the 8th seeded West Virginia Mountaineers, who could played UConn. South Florida will play the winner of the #14 Villanova and #11 Rutgers game. If the Bulls advance to the quarterfinals, they would take on #3 Notre Dame. South Florida beat Villanova twice during the regular season and also knocked off Rutgers at home. However, they lost to Notre Dame by 11 on the road in South Bend.
Since the Big 12 now only has 10 teams, 6 teams receive a bye to the quarterfinals and the 6th seeded team is the Texas Longhorns. They will take on the 3rd seeded Iowa St. Cyclones in the quarters with the winner likely playing #2 Missouri in one semifinal. Texas played Iowa St. tough on the road and lost by just 6 points and then beat the Cyclones at home in Austin by 7. In order to beat Iowa St., the Longhorns front-court will have to contain Royce White, who averaged 14.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, and shot 45 percent from the field in the two games against Texas.
The Colorado St. Rams are the 4th seed in the Mountain West tournament and will take on 5th seeded TCU in the quarterfinals. The Horn Frogs caused the Rams a lot of trouble in the regular season, as TCU took Colorado St. to double overtime on the road, and then beat them by 4 at home. In both games, TCU killed Colorado St. from three point range. They made 12 threes in the two matchups and hit on more than 41 percent of their attempts. The Rams will have to get out on TCU's shooters, especially Hank Thorns, who made 7 threes in the two games combined. If Colorado St. can get past the tricky Horn Frogs, they will likely play a rubber game with #1 seeded San Diego St. Aztecs, who they beat by 17 at home in the regular season.
With a 10-6 record in conference play and a victory over St. Bonaventure, Xavier is the 3rd seed in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. The Musketeers will play the #6 Dayton and #11 George Washington winner in the quarterfinals. If the Flyers win, they will be a difficult matchup for Xavier as they beat them by 15 at home and then lost to them in a tight overtime game in Cincinnati. If Xavier is able to get by that test in the quarters, they would likely play 2nd seeded St. Louis, who is a lock to be in the NCAA tournament and has a 24-6 record.
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