March Madness Bubble Watch: Can Wake Forest improve its NCAA Tournament chances with a win vs. Clemson?

Mike DeCourcy

March Madness Bubble Watch: Can Wake Forest improve its NCAA Tournament chances with a win vs. Clemson? image

There are no elimination games. There is no magic victory that will assure a bubble team of NCAA Tournament entry.

That’s the story of the final weekend of college basketball’s regular season for those teams that have entered the perilous realm of existence known as the “Bubble”.

When conference tournaments begin next week, there will be circumstances in which a team will have no choice but to win the game assigned to them, because failure to do so means there will be no additional chances granted.

On this weekend, there are teams toward the edge of the Bubble that obviously cannot afford to lose their final regular-season games, but the conference tournaments they enter offer at least something of a safety net. In the tournaments themselves, there are no second chances.

So consider all of that when perusing the myriad games that appear on this weekend's Bubble Watch:

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Best NCAA Bubble Game of Saturday:

Clemson at Wake Forest, 6 p.m., ACC Network. Oh, the damage the Deacons have done to their NCAA Tournament pursuit since igniting the possibility – and a national conversation about court-storming, but that’s a discussion for a day that’s already passed – of reaching the field two very long weeks ago. Since that game, the Deacs have lost three in a row, all to teams with no hope of reaching the NCAAs without an automatic bid, two of them with losing records, one of them at home. A win at home against Clemson isn’t going to erase all of that. But it would be a start.

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Others to monitor (bubble team in bold):

Memphis at Florida Atlantic, noon, CBS

Georgetown at St. John’s, noon, Fox

Iowa State at Kansas State, 2 p.m., ESPN

South Florida at Tulsa, 3 p.m., ESPN+

Colorado at Oregon State, 5 p.m., Pac-12 Networks

UCF at TCU, 5 p.m., ESPN+

NC State at Pitt, 7:45, The CW

UConn at Providence, 8 p.m., Fox

Georgia Tech at Virginia, 8 p.m., ACC Network

New Mexico at Utah State, 8:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network

DePaul at Seton Hall, 8:30 p.m., FS1

Best NCAA Bubble Game of Sunday

Illinois at Iowa, 7 p.m., FS1

Since mid-February, the Hawkeyes are 4-1 with victories over three NCAA Tournament-bound teams. That’s at least put them under consideration. If they can find a way to beat the Illini at home on a Big Ten-filled Sunday, they will have a chance. If they cannot, they will need to win the league’s automatic bid – with Purdue and these same Illini standing in the way.

Others to monitor (bubble team in bold):

Nebraska at Michigan, noon, Big Ten Network

Ohio State at Rutgers, 2 p.m., Big Ten Network

Pure NCAA Bubble games

The beauty of a pure bubble game is that both teams involved find themselves similar circumstances. Neither can afford to lose, nor can they afford the opponent to win. There’s nothing quite like in any other sport.

Saturday:

Texas A&M at Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m., SEC Network

Utah at Oregon, 7 p.m., Pac-12 Networks

Mike DeCourcy

Mike DeCourcy Photo

Mike DeCourcy has been the college basketball columnist at The Sporting News since 1995. Starting with newspapers in Pittsburgh, Memphis and Cincinnati, he has written about the game for 35 years and covered 32 Final Fours. He is a member of the United States Basketball Writers Hall of Fame and is a studio analyst at the Big Ten Network and NCAA Tournament Bracket analyst for Fox Sports. He also writes frequently for TSN about soccer and the NFL. Mike was born in Pittsburgh, raised there during the City of Champions decade and graduated from Point Park University.