These 10 bubble candidates stand out from a crowded field and deserve inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.
While a number of major finals are still to come, conference tournament week has already provided multiple thrilling games and upsets around college basketball.
Championship Week is always one of the most exciting times of the year, as it pits top teams against each other as a final test before the NCAA Tournament. The more crucial developments come from squads fighting for their tournament lives, as bubble teams get one last chance to impress the committee.
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The 2017 bubble is made up of several middling major conference teams, so this championship week has been particularly important. Teams like Kansas State and Xavier have earned huge wins to make a late push, while potential bid thieves such as TCU and Davidson emerged behind upsets of top seeds in their respective conference tournaments.
With more changes to the projected field still to come before Sunday, here are 10 bubble teams who have done enough to get into the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan State Spartans
This doesn’t look like one of those Michigan State teams that will suddenly figure it out in March behind the brilliance of Tom Izzo, but the Spartans have at least done just enough to extend their tournament streak to 20 years.
Michigan State overcame a two-game losing streak to close out the regular season with a needed win over Penn State in its Big Ten opener on Thursday. A victory against Minnesota in Friday’s quarterfinal would have locked the Spartans in — and they are close anyway — but there’s still a small amount of doubt after the Golden Gophers pulled away in the final minutes of a 63-58 win.
For all the issues the Spartans had during non-conference play, they escaped with only one bad loss to Northeastern, and a neutral court victory over Wichita State is helpful. At 19-14 overall, the Spartans can’t quite be considered safe, but they critically went 10-8 in Big Ten play and the win over the Shockers, a regular season sweep of Minnesota, and a triumph against Wisconsin.
While there are some serious flaws with this team, particularly following Eron Harris’ season-ending injury, Michigan State’s terrific freshman duo of Miles Bridges and Nick Ward could be dangerous in the tournament. Michigan State has allowed opponents to shoot just 40. 6 percent from the field this year, and owns the nation’s No. 36 adjusted defense per Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings.
The Spartans are among the safest teams that are still technically on the bubble, but nothing is certain with multiple bid thieves still alive.