Bubble-ology

By: Chris Coleman | Lead Analyst and Columnist

This is a tough time of year if you’re a Virginia Tech basketball fan. For
the last two seasons, the Hokies have found themselves on the bubble in early
March, only to fall just short of the NCAA tournament. If the season ended
today, Tech would be in the field of 65, but there are still at least two games
left and anything can happen. Fortunately, there appears to be a fairly weak
bubble field this year, which will increase the Hokies’ chances of getting their
second invite to the Big Dance in the last four years.

We took 12 bubble teams (Joe Lunardi’s last four in and first eight out from
his Bracketology
page on ESPN.com), plus the Hokies, and compared the resumes. The
teams are listed in ascending RPI order. Virginia Tech stacks up very well.


NCAA Tournament Bubble Teams
(all information as of Friday, 3/5/10, from CBSSports.com)

Team
Overall
Conf.
RPI
SOS
1-50
51-100
Bad Losses

Rhode Island
21-7
9-6
30
63
2-4
6-2
1

San Diego State
19-8
10-5
31
58
2-5
1-1
2

UAB
23-6
11-4
41
101
1-4
5-1
1

Dayton
19-10
8-7
42
34
3-7
2-2
1

UConn
17-13
7-10
49
2
3-8
6-3
2

Memphis
22-8
12-3
50
85
2-5
4-0
3

Washington
20-9
10-7
53
60
2-2
4-3
4

Arizona State
21-9
11-6
54
70
1-5
2-2
2

Virginia Tech
22-7
9-6
55
132
2-4
4-2
1

Seton Hall
17-11
8-9
56
25
3-9
3-2
0

Ole Miss
20-9
8-7
57
69
2-5
2-3
1

Mississippi State
21-9
9-6
61
113
1-3
5-1
5

Notre Dame
20-10
9-8
65
55
4-4
5-3
3

It’s very generous to have a couple of those teams still on that list. Let’s
take a closer look at each team. Click
here to pop the table above open in a separate window, for easy
reference.

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