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Last chance for teams on bubble

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Also by Jonah Braun:

UW, UI square off in 1st round (March 6, 2008)
Freshmen pick up slack (March 3, 2008)
Despite loss, Memphis passes test (February 28, 2008)
Badgers look to continue streak (February 28, 2008)
UW picks right time to get hot (February 22, 2008)

by Jonah Braun

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Though the birds are not yet chirping and there is still snow on the ground, spring is imminent, and that’s a great sign for college basketball fans. With March Madness around the corner, conference tournaments are the final chance for teams to make their case before the NCAA Tournament.

This year more than in years past, the field that looks to enter the tournament is so deep that some team’s lone chance is to win their respective tournaments in order to make the Big Dance.

So far, this is not the year a team wants to be on the bubble. While in recent years, a team like Ohio State (18-12, 9-8 Big Ten) would be a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament, this year it must go deep into the Big Ten Tournament in order to show the bidding committee that it belongs in the tourney.

Automatic bids will be key for several teams throughout the country, not just in the powerhouse conferences. In the Big West Conference for example, the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos are hoping to be the second team from the conference in the tournament. But in order to do so, they must win the Big West Tournament to enter the NCAA Tournament as a low seed and take a spot away from a different — and perhaps more deserving — team.

With conferences like the Big East, Pac 10 and the Big 12, all of which can send around five teams to the NCAA Tournament, some other teams that may have deserved spots in past years will be left out. This will result in a major problem for some perennial powerhouses that are having off-years.

This, fortunately for the NCAA, is a good problem to have.

In the tournament field this year, there will be several teams beyond the high seeds that will be capable of making a Final Four run. Look at USC and Kansas State, for example — the two schools are projected at No. 9 seeds right now and have both beaten top-five teams, UCLA and Kansas, respectively.

Looking back at history, arguably no team made more news than George Mason did in 2006. In that season, the Patriots were a No. 11 seed. In retrospect, teams like Maryland and Arizona are projected to be No. 11 seeds, and Maryland was the first team to beat up on North Carolina, shocking the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

So, for now, it looks as if the NCAA has its publicity covered with the high level of team and individual play in the lower seeds making its presence known. The tournament this year is sure to have its fair share of upsets, hallmark endings and surprises.

That being said, for those teams who are currently on the bubble, winning their conference tournament may be the only way to get to the Big Dance and show the nation that they are able to compete with the best. Some good teams — though playing well recently — will not make the tournament because of their poor play earlier in the season. And with such a deep field, those cases cannot be looked at with distaste.

For the conferences having their off-years — the Big Ten and SEC, for example — big wins within the conference do not necessarily add up to a ticket to the big show. Right now the Big Ten boasts an impressive four ranked teams. But for the rest of the conference, it will take more than a .500 record to impress the bidding committee.

While some may look at the low level of play in some of the country’s better conferences as a gateway for worse teams to enter the tournament, this is clearly not the case. Minnesota will not get a bid because Ohio State is having an off-year. A more deserving team from a better conference will grab the opportunity.

This year, the competition within the tournament will challenge the top teams to play at the top of their games for the entire tournament. Watch out for close games in early rounds, especially from the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, many of which can go very deep into the tournament.

For some, the only chance to be that surprise team is to win their conference tournament, and that fact alone is enough incentive for teams on the bubble to play above their ability. For teams that are already in, this may be the year for a low seed to make more noise than usual.

Like most recent ones, this year will not disappoint basketball fans. With the deep field, the nation will not hope to see upsets, but instead it will have to take time to count all of them. The coming conference tournaments are a mere foreshadowing of what the nature of the bigger picture will look like.

Now the question remains: If the field is so deep this year, what team will emerge to become the George Mason of 2008?

Well, the great thing about March Madness is the craziness that comes with it. No matter what the result, this year promises to be one of the most entertaining in recent memory.

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