College Basketball Bubble Watch: Week 11

Keep an eye out for these five college basketball teams who are finishing up Week 11 on the bubble.

While conference races around the nation are just starting to take shape, Selection Sunday is already less than two months away.

The most significant news of last week came out of the Big 12, with the Oklahoma Sooners upsetting the West Virginia Mountaineers on Wednesday night in Morgantown. That allowed the 12-time defending Big 12 champion Kansas Jayhawks to take further control of the conference race after they survived Hilton Magic and the Iowa State Cyclones on Monday.

Elsewhere, the ACC and Big Ten have descended into chaos, with tons of parity in both conferences. There was also an important development in the Big East, as star Creighton point guard Mo Watson suffered a torn ACL in Monday’s win over Xavier.

There were plenty of games of consequence for championship contenders in Week 11, but also a number of crucial bubble showdowns. These five teams have some work to do to make the NCAA Tournament as Week 11 wraps up.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Third-year head coach Danny Manning is engineering an incredible turnaround at Wake Forest, as the Demon Deacons are in contention for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010.

Wake Forest helped its case with an impressive 96-79 win over fellow bubble team Miami on Wednesday night in Winston-Salem. That brings the Demon Deacons’ overall record to 11-7, matching their win total from a year ago, and 2-4 in the brutal ACC.

While seven losses is a lot for a bubble team at this point, five of those are to ranked teams, with the other two coming to teams currently projected to make the field in Clemson and Northwestern. Miami is a quality win that will help the Demon Deacons’ resume, but they still need a signature victory over a ranked ACC team to feel more comfortable on Selection Sunday.

A RPI rank of 28 is tournament-worthy, and Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings have Wake Forest sitting in a solid 38th. The Demon Deacons face a crucial week ahead, as they will hit the road for games against Syracuse and North Carolina State, both of which are winnable.

Taking care of business against the bottom few teams in the conference plus a win over someone like Duke or North Carolina might be enough for Wake Forest. That won’t be easy in the ACC, but Manning is quickly proving  himself to be the right man for the job.