NCAA Tournament: Which men’s teams are on ‘bubble watch’?

• Several men’s basketball teams are on the bubble as the NCAA tournaments Selection Sunday approaches. This weekend will be make or break for some.
• Teams like Georgia, Texas, Nebraska and Boise State can make their case to the committee on Saturday.
• Selection Sunday, which all 68 NCAA teams will be chosen, is March 16.

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With 15 days to go before tournament bids are handed out by the NCAA selection committee, there’s a little anxiety for men’s basketball teams on the bubble. On Saturday, March 1, a couple of those teams will be playing for their NCAA tournament lives.

What is one of the biggest matchups on Saturday, March 1?

Georgia and Texas are both on the bubble. If the Bulldogs can win in Austin, Texas, it would be their first road win in the Southeastern Conference all season, a big reason why they’re a bubble team. The Bulldogs are coming off a massive win against No. 3 Florida at home, but Head Coach Mike White compared this matchup with his team’s loss to No. 1 Auburn one week prior.

“Auburn’s terrific, Texas is terrific hopefully we can do a lot of the same things, clean up some things but some of it’s going to depend on you know how Texas plays too and made shots and made free throws and all those things.” White said. “But I really liked our approach at Auburn, how hard we played, how locked in we were, our resilience. We need to do a lot of that to have success in Texas.”

Who else needs to win this weekend?

Another team that needs a big win or it might have to say goodbye to its NCAA hopes, is Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have lost three of their last four games, including a 17-point loss at Penn State. This team is clearly struggling at the wrong time. A loss to Minnesota Saturday, March 1, would put at least one nail in the coffin.

The same goes for Boise State, a team that is really on the fence depending on which expert you follow. The Broncos play at Fresno State on Saturday, March 1, then Air Force three nights later. Those two opponents are having down seasons. If the Broncos can win both of those and push their win total to 22, they should be in good shape heading into the Mountain West tournament.

“It’s late February and we got guys excited to practice, excited to do their jobs, excited to get to the next game and that’s what you want this time of year, and you know the teams that can have that, have a chance,” head coach Leon Rice said.

How many more ‘bubble teams’ are there?

A few teams that would be considered “on the bubble” by NCAA watchers include, North Carolina, Indiana, Xavier, Oklahoma and Baylor. They all have similar records and all of them play in massive games the next couple weeks to close out the regular season. Those games will go a long way toward deciding their NCAA tournament fate.

March Madness is finally here, let the bubble watching begin!