College Basketball Bubble Watch: Week 12

Keep an eye on these five teams that are on the NCAA Tournament bubble heading into the end of Week 12.

In what’s been an entertaining 2016-17 college basketball regular season so far, Week 12 provided the best slate of game yet.

Four teams ranked in the top six have lost already this week, with more games to come over the weekend. Both Kansas and Kentucky will enter their Saturday showdown at Rupp Arena coming off of losses, as they fell to West Virginia and Tennessee, respectively.

Tuesday night included another major upset, as top-ranked Villanova went down against a Marquette team that is quickly improving its NCAA seeding. Florida State’s impressive run came to a halt on Wednesday night at Georgia Tech, as the ACC race remains wide open.

While those upsets and ranked battles caught most of the national attention, Week 12 also featured plenty of important games for teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble. These five squads enter the weekend with plenty of work to do in order to secure at at-large bid by Selection Sunday.

VCU Rams

The inconsistent Rams are trending more and more towards the wrong side of the bubble, with a huge game ahead on Friday evening.

VCU’s chances of securing an at-large bid took a huge hit a week ago with an overtime road loss to an 8-11 Fordham team. The Rams were able to get back on track with a blowout win over La Salle to move to 15-5 overall and 5-2 in Atlantic 10 play, but they have little margin for error with a bad loss now on the resume.

Those developments bring VCU’s RPI rank to a bubbly 39, and Ken Pomeroy’s ratings aren’t a big believer with the Rams sitting in 49th. While non-conference losses to Baylor, Illinois and a Georgia Tech squad that is much better than anyone predicted aren’t too damaging, the Rams still don’t have a win that will really jump out to the selection committee yet this season.

That victory could come on Friday night, as VCU will host Dayton in its biggest conference game of the season. As VCU’s inconsistency makes it prone to another bad loss or two before Selection Sunday, a win over either the Flyers or Rhode Island might be necessary to secure a spot in the tournament.

The Rams are on the right side of the bubble for now, but are in danger of missing March Madness for the first time since 2010, the first year of the Shaka Smart era.