Bubble Watch: Purdue out, Indiana in, Arizona State comfortably in

Time is running out for teams on the bubble to make their move to get in the NCAA Tournament but time may already be out for the Purdue Boilermakers.

There was plenty of carnage at the top of the college basketball rankings with three of the top four teams losing on Saturday. While those losses will shake-up the projected No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, there was also plenty of movement among the bubble teams.

No one wants to be on “bubble watch” this time of year because the stress and anxiety will eat you alive as you wonder whether your favorite NCAA basketball team will crack the field or if you’ll be filling out an NIT bracket.

According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, this was a particularly great week for Arizona State and NC State who had big wins over Oregon and Duke, respectively to move off the bubble. The win for the Sun Devils moved Bobby Hurley‘s team into the “last four byes” territory on Lunardi’s Bracketology, which means, they’re probably safe barring a total collapse and madness in the smaller conference tournaments.

Last four byes: Arizona State, Virginia, Cincinnati and USC.

For NC State, they’re in the “last four in” group, which also includes Indiana, Utah State and Richmond. The Wolfpack isn’t entirely in the clear yet and fans shouldn’t start planning their NCAA Tournament travel plans, but wins in three of their final four games against UNC, Pittsburgh, Duke and Wake Forest should be enough to get them in the Big Dance.

The Hoosiers are the best of the bubble teams and Sunday’s 68-60 win over Penn State could go a long way toward them joining Arizona State in feeling pretty good about their tournament lives. They still have games with Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin to enhance their resume and remove the drama on Selection Sunday. Wins in three of the four remaining games should make them a lock. Anything less and things can get dicey.

Indiana’s rival, on the other hand, may be out of time to get off the bubble, as the Purdue Boilermakers suffered a tough loss to Michigan on Saturday. This marked the fourth-straight loss for Matt Painter‘s team that is now 14-14 and in 11th place in the Big Ten. Barring a Big Ten Tournament championship, the Boilermakers will be in the NIT this year.

The first four teams out also include Mississippi State, Providence and Georgetown.

The next four behind them are Stanford, South Carolina, Arkansas and Alabama. For any of these teams to make the NCAA Tournament, they’ll need to win out, win their conference tournament and still need a little luck to go their way. In other words, an NIT invitation is forthcoming.

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