As we head toward March and the NCAA Tournament, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is starting to let us know which teams may be in and which may be out
The month of February is quickly coming to a close, which means that we’re entering the most exciting time of the college basketball season. Of course, that means the NCAA Tournament is right around the corner, arguably the most exciting sporting event of the entire calendar year.
Now with the season coming to a close, we’re finding out who the contenders and pretenders are. There are once again a lot of teams on the bubble, so some squads will be very happy next month while others will be on the outside looking in.
So, with that said, Saturday night ESPN’s resident bracketology expert, Joe Lunardi, released his latest bubble watch update and here’s what that looks like.
Bubble update: IN: Texas Tech, Alabama, Butler, Bonaventure; OUT: Vandy, Tulsa, St. Mary's, Oregon St; NEXT: LSU, Clemson, GW, Washington.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) February 21, 2016
He still has Alabama getting in, although their resume did take a bit of a hit on Saturday with their loss to Mississippi State at home. That was not a loss they could have afforded to eat at this point in the year, but they appear to be in good shape.
Sticking with the SEC here. LSU is not getting in, and they also took a stiff shot on Saturday with their loss to the Tennessee Volunteers. This LSU team has been one of the more inconsistent throughout the entire season, and Saturday against Tennessee might have been their worst performance yet, complete with Ben Simmons starting the game on the bench because of an “academic matter.”
There’s still a ways to go here in the regular season and of course the conference tournaments, but this is the picture we’re left with at the moment.